


An Agent of Darkness

by Spacewhalewriting



Category: DCU
Genre: Batfamily Feels, Coming of Age, Consensual Underage Sex, Dubious Consent, F/M, Protective Bruce Wayne, Teen Titans as Family, deathstroke's apprentice
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2020-05-31 16:49:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 26
Words: 48,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19430086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spacewhalewriting/pseuds/Spacewhalewriting
Summary: Sasha Bordeaux had Bruce Wayne's kid but disappears on a mission for Checkmate, leaving her daughter Evelyn to fend for herself. After years on the run, Evelyn meets the Teen Titans. Soon it's a struggle between them and Deathstroke, who's determined to turn this budding metahuman to his own purposes.Gets darker as chapters progress





	1. Chapter 1

It rained that night, the first night of the rest of her life. Evelyn was ten years old and her mother was at work. She had been at work for a week now. It was almost ten oclock and the neighbor who watched her, old Mrs. Grady, was asleep on the couch. Evelyn was sitting at the kitchen table doing her french homework when the phone rang. Thunder rumbled outside. She got up to answer it, hearing her mother’s voice, sharp and breathy on the other end. There was a little static on the line as if their connection were an unsure thing.

“Baby, Evelyn is that you?” Said Sasha.

“Yes Mama.”

“Listen to me, baby. Mama’s not coming home for a while.” Said Sasha, her words hurried. Evelyn glanced towards the living room, bringing her other hand up to grip the phone as if, if she held onto it with both hands, tightly, her mother might not go. Sasha continued. “I need you to do something for me. I need you to get your go bag and the knife I gave you for your birthday and I need you to leave the house. Where’s Mrs. Grady?”

“Sleeping on the couch.” Said Evelyn. Despite these things that her mother was telling her her voice was steady, if small. She had been prepared for such an eventuality, drilled in what to do if this call ever came. She knew what she was supposed to do.

“Don’t wake her. There are people coming for you, baby. I need you to get away as fast as you can, as far as you can. Use cash only. Can you do that for me, Evie?” Asked Sasha. Her voice was becoming more and more hurried, as if something were coming for the both of them and she hadn’t enough time to get her offspring out of harm’s path, much less herself.

“Yes, Mama.”

“I love you, Evie.”

“I love you too, Mama.”

There was a click. Evelyn gripped the phone with white knuckled hands. For a moment she stood there. Then she dropped the phone and ran.

____________________________________________

Five years later:

She was still running. She was barely a streak across the landscape, headed south through the national park, a dirt covered blur with worn hiking boots pounding the rock covered ground. The sun overhead beat down on her with a clawed ferocity, but it was another kind of claws that she was running from. Behind her she heard the shriek of a territorial wildcat, pushing her to go even faster, downhill now. Somewhere ahead of her there was an answering cry and she tried to change direction suddenly to avoid running into danger instead of away from it. Her boot caught a patch of gravel and she slid, stumbling with arms windmilling to catch her balance. Her stumbling feet caught another rock and she bit the dust, tumbling downhill and hitting what seemed like every small boulder on the way. A cut above her eye bleeding and hands and knees scraped raw, she looked up just as her pursuer caught up with her. She hadn’t time to draw the knife strapped to her thigh, instead reacting instinctively and catching the leaping cougar in the stomach with both feet and rolling backwards, launching it over her head. She rolled to her hands and knees as it landed yards away and skidded sideways, powerful muscles bunching. Crouched with hands on the ground, she drew her knife now, ready to kill or be killed. She heard that same cat’s cry from very closeby but she had a lot on her mind right now.

It wasn’t until the green cougar leapt over her head and between her and the other animal that she lost her balance and fell backwards into the dust. The two cats circled each other with ears laid back, hissing and batting. Evelyn found herself wondering if she had accidentally ingested some mushrooms of the magic variety, or if she had been out in the sun so long that she was hallucinating. The green cougar batted at the brown one. A commotion rushed up behind her and she ducked as flying disks came out of nowhere. They exploded as they landed near the cougars, flashing and banging. The cougar, sufficiently cowed, turned tail and bounded back into the wilderness. Evelyn looked up to see a masked and caped boy of her own age holding out a gloved hand. An R was emblazoned on his chest. Coming up behind him there were two hovering girls and an older teenager whose limbs and half of his face was covered in metal. She knew then that she’d wandered too far south. This was the Teen Titan’s territory. She sheathed her knife and took Robin’s proffered hand and he helped her up.

“Thanks.”

“You’re bleeding!” Said one of the girls, setting herself down on the ground. She had flaming red hair down to her waist. Evelyn touched her forehead and her fingers came away bloody.

“Yeah, I guess.” She said. She was grateful to not have to tangle anymore with that cougar but felt less than comfortable being saved by a group of superheros, who she tried her best to avoid. The green cat morphed into a short, pointy eared boy of the same green. Eagerly, he got between her and Robin, shaking her hand vigorously.

“I’ve never seen anyone fight a mountain lion before, I’m Beast Boy hows it going?” He said all in one breath. Then he wiped his dusty hands on his purple jumpsuit.

“I’ve never had to fight a mountain lion before.” She said, noting the hand wipe. She realized how rough she looked. She didn’t have sunscreen so she’d rolled in the last mud patch she could find and was caked head to toe with dried mud as protection against the boiling sky. Between that, the holey clothes, and the scrapes and bruises, she was a sight.

“I’ve never seen that either. Could you use a place to stay tonight?” Asked Robin.

“We’re having pizza!” Interjected Beast Boy, helpfully. Not wanting to seem ungrateful, and not remembering the last night she spent in a real bed, she hesitated but ultimately accepted.

“I could.” She said. Starfire clasped her hands as if this were a joyous turn of events.

“How wonderful, a new friend made of dirt! What is your name, new friend?” she exclaimed.

“It’s just mud.” Said Evelyn. She sorted through her stock of names but what came out of her mouth was “Evelyn.” She kicked herself. Introductions were made but she knew their names already. Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy, Robin, and Cyborg. They were, in a way, dangerous, and she would accept their kindness for the night, but only long enough to get herself repaired and get her bearings again. Nobody noticed the drone in the distance, feeding a live line of the interaction into a screen miles away in the city.


	2. An Offer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: Does Evelyn have it in her to be a titan or will her past come back to haunt her?

Evelyn was a chameleon by habit, but the Teen Titans were welcoming enough that she settled into that first night without effort. She didn’t really spend time with people her own age very often so it was a breath of fresh air to be around them. They were not without their quirks and chaos erupted often, but they seemed like surprisingly...normal teenagers. Their tower was vast and the living room had a spectacular view of the bay, but before anything she’d been shown to a spare room and given time to shower. A hot shower. Shampoo and soap. She changed into the relatively clean spare clothes she’d had in her backpack and as the door slid open and she was about to make her way back to the living room, Robin appeared carrying a first aid kit.

“Hey.” He said, lifting a hand in greeting. “I thought you might need some stitching up after that encounter.” She had wrapped a towel around her hair so her head wound had appeared to stop bleeding, but she knew that by virtue of it being a head wound it might just be temporarily staunched by the towel. She took the towel off her hair and held it to the spot, letting him in.

“So you’re the resident med, huh?” She asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

“More or less.” He answered, sitting next to her and unlatching the kit. “Let me see?” She took the towel from her head and the wound glistened, clean but still fresh. He dabbed an antiseptic gel on it, making light conversation as he did so. “Not a lot of people could handle a mountain lion the way you did. Where’d you learn to fight?” She didn’t know what to tell him.

“My mom.” She said. The best lies always had an element of truth to them. She was untraceable. Untrackable. Unbreakable. This nugget of information was safe to share. “She was big on martial arts when I was a kid.” Finished putting a butterfly on her head wound, he took her hands one by one and sprayed something on the raw palms that stung and made her hiss.

“Sorry. I’d really like to see you hold your own in the practice gym. We’re always looking for new blood.” He said. She hesitated. By nature of her existence she had no destination and so had no deadline to leave the city. She was a natural liar and convinced herself within a split second that should they discover her for what she was, she could simply run and it just would be back on the road again.

“Alright.” She finally agreed. He grinned.

“Alright.” He echoed. “Pizza sound good?” Involuntarily, her stomach rumbled. The last time she’d eaten had been about two days ago. She nodded. By the time they got there several pies had been delivered and it was chaos in the kitchen as everyone vied for their favorite slices. Beast Boy and Raven went for the vegan cheese pie, while Robin and Cyborg fought over the meat lovers, and Starfire was heaping candy on top of a pepperoni slice. Evelyn slid under Cyborg’s arm neatly and grabbed two slices of pepperoni, dancing around Beast Boy who was animatedly recounting an adventure to Raven, and perching herself on top of a piece of free counterspace to devour her first hot meal in a while. There was plenty to go around and after they’d all grabbed something they settled in to play video games. Evelyn was given a controller and she sat with it, unsure how to maneuver the joysticks to make her racing car move. She kept crashing into other cars, accidentally ensuring that Cyborg’s car erupted into flames and Robin won, but the mistake was taken in stride and the argument that erupted was over what to play next that had an easier learning curve.

She went to sleep that night in a real bed, without questionable sheets, under a solid roof, with a door that locked and surrounded by people her own age who she could get along with without forcing a different personality upon herself to survive among them.

_I could get used to this._

___________________________________

Evelyn woke up early the next morning, finding the titans in the kitchen. Cyborg had a frilly apron on and was flipping pancakes while the rest of them milled about doing dishes and in Beast Boy’s case, licking batter spoons. She inhaled the homey smell deeply, reminded of times when her mother had made blueberry pancakes on the mornings when she came back from long days or weeks away at work. When it was time to eat, she had a huge stack slathered in syrup and butter, with a side of bacon. Eagerly she devoured this breakfast, knowing that she’d need her strength to impress the titans.

They took her into the practice gym, a cavernous space with mats on the floor. Her skills had kept her alive on the road for five years, through trial and tribulation, and she had no doubt that they would fail her now.

“Alright, lets see what you can do.” Robin said. The titans stepped back, clearing the area. She hesitated, not knowing what he meant, but before she could question what she was supposed to do, holographic shapes shimmered into view. As soon as they had solidified into black garbed, masked figures, they attacked. She blocked the blow of what looked like a short bo with both hands crossed over her head and was surprised to find that the attack was solid. Disengaging, she arched backwards and slid under a two pronged attack, finding herself face to face with another figure. Drawing her knife she slashed at the figure’s neck. They were popping up out of the woodworks, exploding into light as she dealt killing blows and coming back more numerous than ever before. Flipping backwards to avoid a blow, she swept their feet out from under them and leapt like a cat, straddling them and stabbing her blade into the figure’s chest and it exploded, sending her knife into the ground as it disappeared. It was stuck for a moment, causing her to have to lash out with her leg to catch a running figure in the groin.

Not having a groin to speak of, it did not do the damage she intended and nearly caught her with a double handed blow over the head. She blocked, the shock of the blow traveling through her lower arms. She gritted her teeth and brought her hands down in claws, catching the two bos and ripping them downwards. Striking like a cobra, she headbutted it and it exploded into bits of light. One by one and two by two she dispatched the practice figures with measured ferocity until she was down to the last one. As it dissipated a new threat came from the shadows, devices unfolding from the walls and spewing laser beams at a rapid pace. She dodged through them, launching herself into a handspring and arching deeply to avoid whatever damage these could do. She skidded to a halt in front of Robin again and the laser machines packed themselves back up, retreating again into the walls.

There was a pause. Then, celebratory cheers- the titans swept her up in it, Cyborg clapping her on the back (it stung) and Beast Boy leaping around punching the air. Even Raven, who did not do strong expressions, seemed mildly impressed. Robin was smiling. Evelyn had broken out in a light sweat, though she didn’t know if it was from the workout or the praise. He offered her a hand. She sheathed her knife.

“That was awesome!” Beast boy jubilated.

“Welcome to the Titans. That is, if you want.” Said Robin. She considered the job offer for a second. Then took his hand and shook it firmly.

_________________________________

That night Evelyn considered what she’d done a little more carefully. She wasn’t the hero type. She was a hardscrabble survivor, a necessity criminal. A little voice in the back of her head spoke up, causing her to toss and turn in bed. _Don’t tell me you don’t enjoy it sometimes._ She pushed away the thought before it could grow into specifics, but in the back of her mind they were there. She wasn’t ready to admit to herself that she was an adrenaline junkie. There was nothing like that high. The rush of a fight. She’d had a lot of bad endings and a lot of running, but _oh_ , in the moments before the fall...the exhilaration was unparalleled.

 _It could be different here_ , she told herself. She could get the same rush, doing good this time. She didn’t delude herself anymore into thinking that any home she could claw her way into would be a permanent happy ending, but if she could manage it, this might be a good stop on her road. After all, the Titans were vigilantes- they didn’t necessarily operate within the bounds of the law either. She tried to convince herself that this was a good thing, could be a good part of her life, but the same doubt that kept her running wormed its way in. _Prove it_ it said. The challenge would be keeping the Titans out of her past, but so far they hadn’t asked any questions, trusting and naive. She depended on that.

She had no idea the storm that was on the horizon.


	3. First Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: Deathstroke gets involved, makes threats, does villainy stuff

Over time she settled into her latest stop on the road to nowhere. They dealt with a few low level masks, some common criminals. Nothing she couldn’t handle. Robin had christened her with a black half face mask similar to the one he wore and she’d chosen a name for herself that fit. Agent. She was comfortable with being Agent and got more comfortable by the day. She could see herself staying there for a while but by habit refused to make the room she stayed in her own. It remained spartan and her bag remained packed for at-notice go. Sometime about a month in, Evelyn was awakened by an alarm coming from the bedside table. Robin had given her a small circular communicator emblazoned with a T and groggily she realized it was flashing and ringing. A mission. She leapt out of bed and answered it. Robin’s image popped up.

“Living room for briefing. We head out in less than five.” He said. She slept in her clothes so she pulled on her boots and jogged through the tower to the living room at the same time as the last stragglers appeared. They gathered round the screen as Robin laid it out for them.

“I’ve been tracking Deathstroke ever since last time and I set up some proximity alerts in his old haunts; I got a report from across the bay that there’s been some low level activity in this location.” On the screen, the view zoomed in over a red dot on the map. “More when we get there. Titans, head out.”

Evelyn had heard some pretty far out names from the costumed community, but Deathstroke was a new one. She had no expectation of what kind of danger she was about to face but was comfortable with the unknown.

__________________________________

Robin had loaned her a bike; she knew how to ride and as they split up to hit different entrances and block Deathstroke’s escape, she received instructions over her headpiece. If they came face to face they were to stall but call for backup and avoid engaging until others had arrived. She didn’t see how a mask could be all that more dangerous than what she’d dealt with before. Couldn’t be too hard. Knife ready in one hand and flashlight propped over it with the other, she advanced down a dark corridor, listening for any activity over the comm. They searched the dark building floor by floor, checking in once they had cleared their floor.

“Upper level clear.” “Floor four clear.” “Second floor clear”

“Lower level, clear.” Evelyn said, relaxing. Too late she heard something behind her, tensing again and swinging around to be met with a powerful foot to the face. Vision exploding into stars, she flew backwards, landing hard on the ground and skidding a few feet before stopping. Not one to take a beating lying down she struggled up to find the end of a long metal pole hovering over her neck and a tall costumed man standing over her. This could only be Deathstroke, and she’d let him get behind her. She kicked herself for it but he didn’t strike a final blow, instead letting her catch her breath. .

“Hello, Evelyn.” He said, his voice through the mask a silky growl.

“How do-”

"I’ve been following you for a while, Evelyn. I have to say that this is an unexpected choice on your part, but you’ve always been an opportunist, if nothing else.”

“I don’t-”

“How do I know your name when you haven’t used it in five years?” He knew how long she’d been on the run. “I know a lot about you, Evelyn. For example I know what you were up to in DC. And who you were staying with in Miami.” Her stomach clenched. “I know you’re from a little town called Cleaburn, Texas. I know your mother’s dead.” Even she didn’t know that for sure. She supposed if Sasha were alive she would have come to find her wherever she was, and in a way she had known because she had not, but hearing it made her sick. “Social security number, blood type, medical records. You have some juicy facts in there. It made for good reading. I wonder what your new friends would think about the interesting little criminal they’ve taken in.” He said. Opposing instincts fought within her- she wanted to get up and run, but if she didn’t want this guy spilling state secrets if the Titans got ahold of him she had to silence him. Her hand searched the dark for the knife that had flown from her hand, finding it by the blade and grasping it. “Oh, we’re going to fight now, is that what you think?” He said, a silky laugh emitting through his mask.

“Yeah, that’s what I think.” She said, gripping the knife. If she could roll out of the way she might have a chance to get to her feet and this might be a fair fight.

“There are things about yourself that you don’t know. The titans can’t help you reach your true potential. I can.” He said.

“Sure, because I want to associate myself with a super villain.” She said.

“You say that now, but in a few weeks you’ll be looking for me.” He said, jabbing the metal pole towards her. She reached for her comm and activated it, calling for backup that same moment

“Anyone copy, I have him on the ground level-” A long needle flew from the tip of the pole, jabbing her deep in the meat of the shoulder just below her collarbone and she yelled in pain, clutching at the pole dug into her flesh. He withdrew it with a jerk and she yelled again, curling up a little. Whatever he had just injected her with felt like fire slowly spreading through her body.

“See you around.” He said, stepping back and melting into the shadows. Robin was the one who found her, skidding onto the scene too late and finding her seizing on the ground.


	4. Fever Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: At the ripe old age of 15 Evelyn has never ridden a roller coaster beyond the metaphorical

Evelyn woke several times over the next few days, feverish and hazy. The faces of her team members floated above her, concerned and talking to each other. It seemed like whenever she woke she would eventually fall back into a seizure before passing out again. She lay there in the Titan’s tower med bay slipping in and out of consciousness, hooked up to every kind of monitor possible. Scenes flashed through her fevered mind.

_She was crawling through the garbage on the street to pull Cainey into her lap. The other girl was bleeding out, three bullet holes in her chest and a stream of blood leaking from the corner of her mouth. She shouldn’t have had to learn about consequences this young, but at ten she was watching a friend die. Only by some miracle had she not been hit herself._

She was unaware of the conversations that went over her head. Robin had never seen anything attack like this before. It moved like a virus but nothing they could do would stop it, no traditional antibiotic worked.

_She was leaving Miami with stinging reminders of the city dark and fresh in her flesh. Her birthday presents from Kay, who had gotten her drunk so she wouldn’t remember going to the tattoo parlor._

“We’ve got to find him and make him tell us what he did to her.” Robin was saying. Beast Boy’s ears were flat against his head.

_She was in a hotel room in Washington DC with an unconscious senator who’d gotten more than the nubile underage body that he’d signed up for, and she was unlocking his phone with his fingerprint._

They had scanned her with machines and now Raven was digging in a non traditional way, passing her glowing hands over Evelyn’s body. Whatever Slade had injected her with was changing her at a cellular level, her cells turning over and regenerating as fast as it could kill them. It had spread through her body like a wave, devouring, changing her. A week later the fever broke and her eyes fluttered open. The first thing she noticed was that Beast boy was snoring, draped over a chair beside her bed. She was starving. Detatching herself from the myriad of machines and wincing as she pulled out her IV, she padded out of the room and wandered down the hall, finding the kitchen.

__________________________________

Robin woke up early the next morning, going in to check on Evelyn before breakfast. He found the bed empty and immediately panicked, smacking the control panel by the door with the flat of his palm.

“Computer, locate Agent!” He said. If she had her communicator it would show up. A map of the tower appeared and a small red dot blipped onto the screen, centering on the gym. She was still in the tower. She’d been unconscious for the last few days, how could she be in the gym? He jogged there, stopping in the doorway to find the rest of the titans standing in the middle of a clear space. Evelyn was standing there in the scrub like pajamas they’d put her to bed with. She looked...fuller, somehow, as if the years of malnourishment hadn’t ever happened. They noticed him.

“Robin check this out.” Beast Boy said. At his signal, Evelyn crouched, grabbing the bar at her feet and lifting with her legs, picked the weight up off the ground. There were three plates on each side of the bar totaling six hundred pounds. As she straightened up, Robin saw that her eyes had changed as if her pupils had spread over the surface of her eye, swallowing the iris and white in black. As he watched, stunned, she straightened her back and without a hint of shaking arms, lifted the bar over her head. She held it for a moment and then her face seemed to show a faint alarm as if she knew she couldn’t continue to hold it. She lowered it before the ability wore off, dropping it back to the ground with an echoing clang.

“How cool is that??” Cyborg exclaimed, pointing with finger guns.

“When did you get up?” Robin asked.

“About an hour ago. I feel fine.” Evelyn said. Her eyes were brown again.

“Fine is relative. She ate two dozen eggs and a loaf of bread. On that note, we need more eggs and bread.” Said Beast Boy.

“Pretty weird.” Said Raven, flatly.

“I think it is delightful!” Said Starfire. “I am still the strongest member, but you may approach me in strength.”

“Who are you calling the strongest member??” Asked Cyborg, insulted. They launched into an animated argument on the spot. Robin pulled Evelyn aside, dropping his voice.

“You’re doing okay, really?” He asked. She seemed like she might shrug, then nodded, but seemed at a loss for words. “You couldn’t do that before.” He said. She didn’t answer for a moment. Normally she rolled with the punches, but this was bizarre in a way that was entirely new and she was unsure of how to handle it.

“No.” She said. She definitely couldn’t. Logic told her that this new thing was in direct relation to the needle that Slade had stabbed her with. The resulting illness had made sense. This did not. He had infected her with a foreign substance with purpose. Making her weaker made sense. Stronger did not.

“Can I take a blood sample from you?” Robin asked. She bristled, shoulders rising, Slade’s words coming back to her. _Social security number, blood type, medical records.... I wonder what your new friends would think about the interesting little criminal they’ve taken in._

But Robin wasn’t Slade. And there was nothing that blood could tell him about her past so she had nothing to lose. She nodded wordlessly and they went back to the med center together. She wasn’t confident that if she said something it would come out right. So many doubts and fears had flooded her and she wasn’t ready to share them with anybody. Robin was trustworthy but she knew that she’d never fully trust anybody. In the med center she sat on the counter and let Robin find a vein, drawing a few vials of blood.

“What are you going to do with them?” She asked as he stashed them in the mini fridge.

“I think I’m going to send them to STAR labs. Maybe have a friend look at them and see what he can make of it.” He said, hopping up onto the counter next to her. They looked at eachother a moment and then Evelyn looked away, unable to hold his gaze. “Can I be honest with you?” He asked. Her lip twisted to the side.

“Yeah. Please.” She said.

“I think you’re a metahuman.” He said. She didn’t know how to feel about that so she filed it away for another day. Just another brick in the wall. “I don’t know what Slade gave you, but I think it activated some latent gene and that’s why this is happening.” He clapped her on the back and jumped off the counter. “For now I wouldn’t worry about it. We’ll see what the labwork comes back as.”

She worried all the same.

_________________________________

The following week, things seemed to have subsided into a kind of normal.

“You’ve never been on a rollercoaster??” Squeaked Beast Boy. Evelyn was getting better at video games, but she still did not have full control of her character, punching when she intended to block and getting caught in Cyborg’s character’s special barrage attack.

“FATALITY.” Said the game’s announcer. She sighed.

“No. I mean...I’ve never really had the opportunity? I’ve been...busy.” She said as the game loaded the next fight. She handed her controller to Robin for his turn.

“You know what this means?” Robin said. The deeply serious way he said it made her pause.

“What?” She asked. Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Robin all looked at each other, speaking simultaneously.

“We’re going to the pier!”

___________________________________

The next morning the team had loaded up in a rented RV, and Cyborg, as one of the few of them with a driver’s license, had driven them an hour down the coast and to Santa Cruz. It was the first time Evelyn had ever seen them in casual clothes, but Robin somehow had refused to remove his mask. Starfire was wearing shades and a crop top, which was a good look. Raven had even attempted a black sarong over a swimsuit and Beast Boy had shown up that morning wearing flippers and a duck shaped floaty even though he could, mostly likely, turn into a seal or dolphin at will. Cyborg got them safely through traffic and they parked by the beach. Evelyn didn’t know the last time she’d been at a beach. Maybe Miami. This was different; the pier wasn’t only a stretch of shops and food, it was an amusement park with rides from a carousel to roller coasters and fair games.

Never in her life had Evelyn seen something like this, or had the opportunity to stop and consider a fair and its offerings. She’d never had a foot long hotdog with sauerkraut or funnel cakes or something called “elvis on a stick” that turned out to be delicious. She tried it all today, sharing with Beast Boy and adamantly rejecting his proffered koolaid pickles. When Robin wasn’t looking she cheated at the strength game, using her powers for just a second and sending the puck banging so hard into the bell that the bell came off and sailed into the air, ringing as it went. She left the game with a huge teddy bear that she didn’t know what to do with so she gave it to an effusive Starfire, who floated a foot off the ground when she gave it to her.

They stood in line for a half hour to ride the wooden roller coaster that didn’t sound all that safe to her, but when she was at the top of that first hill looking down on the world and waiting for the fall, she discovered that bliss could be found at great heights. It felt like falling and at once like flying, rattling down the track faster than she could ever run, sharp turns coaxing delighted screams from her mouth. She threw up her hands as she fell, adrenaline rushing like the wind by her ears. She rode it twice.

__________________________________

Evelyn paid the ticket admission to the hall of mirrors, waiting the allotted two minutes before following Robin into the dark entrance. It was a haunted house concept; scarier if you went in alone. She didn’t do “recreational” scary, but she’d never experienced a fair like atmosphere like this and like the food, she wanted to try one of everything. Stepping inside was like going into an alternate dimension. The door closed and she was left with the lights in the ceiling and the faint sounds of the pier outside. After nearly smacking into a mirror that she’d thought was a corridor, she went forward with her hands outstretched, little twinkling lights above her reflecting off the mirrors like blue and yellow stars. It was disorienting but she didn’t feel fear. Slowly the sounds of the pier disappeared and she was alone. Or so she thought.

She heard his voice coming from some corner of her imagination- wasn’t it her imagination? She thought it was until the scaled figure seemed to step out of the shadows in multiples, surrounding her. Slade, out of her dreams and in the flesh.

“There you are.” He said, moving towards her. She reacted as soon as she saw him, pulling her knife from under the leg of her shorts and throwing it, hard. The mirror cracked as it pierced it, but it was not the flesh she’d been aiming for.

“What do you want??” She spat. She’d thought about what she’d do to him if she ever saw him again and since she’d missed her opportunity to kill him quickly she was thinking about those things again. Considering their last meeting and how he’d so easily gotten the upper hand, she was a little nervous.

“It’s not about what I want, Evelyn. It’s about what you want.” He said, his voice silky. He wasn’t there but he was still around her. He walked forward and seem to coalesce into one, finally coming forward a solid figure of flesh. She went for her knife sticking out of the mirror but he got there first, knocking it from her hand and pushing her backwards and away from him. There went her only weapon. She backed away.

“And what do you think that is, Slade?” She asked.

“You want what I have.”

“A fashion sense birthed in the seventies?” She quipped, looking for her knife and finding it on the ground with Slade between her and it. She’d grown taller but he still outweighed her by a far stretch. Hand to hand without a weapon was not how she wanted to do this.

“Information. About who you are and what you’re made of.”

“I already know what I need to know.”

“Do you know who your father is?”

It hit her like a punch to the gut. She’d never had a father and he was dangling it in front of her like the answer to so many sleepless nights, too afraid to fall asleep without a bed and four walls around her, lest she become victim to the world. It was the unspoken temptation of a loving home, of an end to a life on the run. She caught her breath, reality coming back to her. She’d never stopped running because all of these years she’d assumed the people her mother had told her were coming...were still coming. That they could get her if she stopped for too long and take her away.

“I wouldn’t want a kid like me.” She said.

“I’m sure that may be true,” He said, “But aren’t you even the least bit curious? Don’t you wonder what it would be like to know who you are and where you come from? Know that you might have had a chance at a normal life?”

“It’s your fault that I’m not normal! You did this to me!” Unable to control herself, she lashed out at him with a fist that he caught, crushing her hand in his gloved one. Had she used her powers she would have been able to break that grip and punish him, but she knew they didn’t last long and she was saving her strength for when she really needed it.

“Tsk tsk.” He said, casually. “Not true and you know it. Of course, in reference to your current health it might have taken time, but as soon as an event happened that was stressful enough, your metagene would have activated itself on its own. All I did was create the right conditions for it to do so.” His free hand reached out to her, running his fingers through the hair at the nape of her neck. “I’m not asking much of you. Just your unquestioning loyalty, and things you already do...in exchange for something that could change your life. I know that there are things you want, and none of them are shiny.”

“How do you know what I want?” She snarled, attempting to rip herself away but his hand gripped her hair now tightly at the roots, keeping her in place as she tried to jerk away.

“I know everything about you, Agent. That’s what you go by now, isn’t it?” He leaned forward until his face was level with hers and she stiffened, feeling trapped. He whispered now in her ear. “I know everything about you. And you know nothing.”

Nothing. He was right. Maybe Sasha had intended to tell her more when she was older but she really knew nothing about her parents. She didn’t know who she was, too busy surviving to have a healthy relationship. The titans were changing that, but you couldn’t undo years of trauma and running with a few kind words.

“You know Robin is in here too, if I call for him my backup can be here in less than a minute.” She said

“By all means. Do you know what I can do to you in less than a minute? And your friends too.” He asked. Nonetheless he released her hand and her hair, letting her stumble back. “I’ll let you think on it.” He said, stepping back and seeming to melt into the air. “Just don’t think too long.” This was what frightened her; not that he could hurt her if he tried, but that he seemed to be so determined to _control_ her and appeared to have the means to do it. That, she hated most of all.

She found her way through the maze and stepped back out into the sun and noise of the pier. Robin was waiting for her. The day seemed cooler than when she’d gone in, yet she realized that a film of sweat had broken out over her brow.


	5. Kiss Kiss Fall In Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: Evelyn has some philosophical questions, Agent has her first kiss

Evelyn couldn’t sleep, tossing and turning in what seemed like a vast open space. Every time she closed her eyes she felt Slade’s gloved hand in her hair, heard the rasp of his voice in her ear. _You know nothing._ Words that he’d never said came to her in his voice. _You are nothing. Not without me. I can give you a second chance._ But weren’t the Titans her second chance? Or was she lying to herself thinking that she could make up for everything she’d ever done, the people she’d hurt? Was it a fantasy that she could rise from ruin and live on the right side? Or was it too late to turn back and undo what her mother and circumstance had done? She had no experience to tell what was normal or not but she was sure that she’d been set on this path even before she’d fled from her childhood home. Was she capable of altruism or was she too used to taking care of herself?

 _You cared about Cainey._ She flopped over in bed. _I let Cainey die._ But was watching someone die the same as letting them? Five years later she still lived with that guilt and it made it hard to differentiate between the two. What did a child know about love? What did she know about caring for people? She knew nothing of herself other than her will to survive regardless of what others might do. And this caused questions, fostered doubt. She wanted what Slade was offering and she felt dirty for it. She dared not talk to any of the Titans about this, afraid to be branded a traitor before she’d even made up her mind.

She wanted what he was offering so badly. To know who she could have been. She couldn’t imagine herself packing up and arriving on her father’s doorstep asking to be cared for- in fact she couldn’t imagine asking that of anyone, but the temptation to know was there. She’d never dealt well with temptation. She bit her lower lip and found it chapped and rough. Could she take what she wanted from Slade and be rid of him in the same fell swoop? An impossible plan began forming in her mind, but she trusted no one to help her carry it out. She knew she wasn’t going to get any sleep tonight, getting up.and going to the closet. There wasn’t a lot in there, but it was more than she’d had in a while, a few outfits that she could swap out and what she wore when she was out on missions with the Titans. It was a pair of black armored leggings and a cropped black tank top; a utility belt, boots, and knife holster followed, as well as her mask and she was ready to go. She hid in Agent as if she were another person, one who knew what she was doing and strode forward with her actions in confidence. The tower was quiet at this time of night so she made it down to the garage without meeting anyone.

Mounting one of the bikes, she considered a helmet with both hands but eventually put it back. She wanted to feel the wind in her hair, be cleansed of these thoughts and this sleepless night. She noticed that Robin’s favorite bike was gone. Was he out there doing the same thing? Working some problem out on the road? She hit the garage door button and then activated the GPS, peeling out of the garage and onto the street. He was so far out in the city that it took her half an hour of driving to find him, but find him she did, waiting politely at a red light. She pulled up beside him with a purr of her engine and revved the bike. Robin looked over and she revved again, challenging him. He grinned. They both crouched low on their bikes, watching the light.

It blinked green and they hit the gas, rocketing from the stoplight and through the quiet streets, leaving behind nothing but burnt rubber on the concrete. They raced neck in neck with engines rumbling beneath them. A roadblock raced up to meet them and Robin turned abruptly down a side street; Agent followed, knee nearly scraping the ground as she leaned into the sharp turn. Their tail lights were streaks of neon against the backdrop of night. Agent didn’t think she’d ever gone this fast just for fun and it was exhilarating, leaning into the wind, hair whipping behind her. The city thinned out and they approached a bridge; a late night container ship was coming into the bay, the bridge flashing warning lights and a partitioning arm coming down to block the road as the bridge went up. The two teenagers didn’t even glance at each other, playing a game of chicken that both of them were determined to go all the way with. They whipped under the partition as it was coming down, hitting the gas and streaking up the bridge which had now formed a ramp. They flew through the air side by side, Agent whooping into the warm night air as they soared through the night. Their wheels hit the other side and gravity was in working order again but Agent still felt like she was flying.

By the time they wheeled their bikes back into the garage at the tower, Agent was wild eyed behind her mask and had no idea what to do with her energy. She thought she might go up to the gym and fight some of it out against the computer.

“Thanks. I needed that.” She said, lowering the kickstand on her bike and grinning at Robin as he parked his own bike.

“Me too.” He said, taking off his driving gloves. “You tired?”

“Wired.” She answered.

“I need to clear my head. Feel like sparring?” He asked.

“I’d love to punch you in the head.” She joked. She could hardly contain herself on the way up to the gym, almost shaking with anticipation. She’d seen Robin fight; he was highly trained and deadly efficient. Next to him sometimes she felt like an amateur, but her blood was up and she wanted nothing more than to fight someone, anyone. The lights flickered on as they went in. It reminded her so much of the dojo she’d grown up in that she almost took off her boots as she entered, but suppressed the urge. They took defensive positions in the middle of the gym, hands up and facing each other.

“You ready to lose?” Robin asked.

“You _wish_.” She said. She could hear her own heartbeat whooshing through her ears, face flushed with anticipation. Without waiting for him to strike first, she experimentally invaded his space, jabbing four fingers towards his ribs hoping to catch him off guard. Swiftly he blocked and countered. She spun, sending a roundhouse kick to his head. He dropped to sweep her feet out from under her and she hit the mat with both hands down, flipping back up athletically and sending a barrage of double fisted punches to his torso. He dodged and blocked, frustratingly not one of her hits landed.

Changing styles, she fought the way Kay had taught her. Hard, bullying, with her fists clasped together like a club swinging at his head. He caught her hands and twisted, pulling her over his head and landing her flat on her back. Breath knocked temporarily from her, she rolled out of the way of his fist and grabbed his shirt to take him with her. He flew past her and into the ground the way she had, and she rolled on top of him with one knee on either side of his waist. What had begun as a polite sparring match had turned into an all out brawl. Her hands still gripping his shirt, he grabbed her in the same manner and pulled her down for what she assumed would be a vicious headbutt to disorient her and make her release him. Instead, he pulled firmly and brought her face close to his. She met him there and inexplicably their lips pressed together. It was far from gentle, but didn’t feel invasive or aggressively sexual. He kept his lips closed and she followed suit, eyes closing tightly. She could feel both their heartbeats.

She couldn’t tell who had started it- who had kissed who, or if it had been an unconsciously made, simultaneous decision. When it was over she released him, rolling over and flopping onto her back beside him. He didn’t get up, the both of them staring up at the high ceiling without talking. She didn’t tell him that that had been her first kiss. She wondered if it was safe to tell either of the girls about this and ask _what the fuck_ and get an answer. She knew some things about men, an ill gotten education through would-be-predators, but not a lot about boys or innocent flirtations or kissing.

They lay there for a few minutes, neither of them knowing what to say. Finally Agent peeled herself from the mats, looking away.

“I’m going to go take a shower.” She said.

“Okay. Night.” He said, also peeling himself up to sit up and watch her go.


	6. Consequences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: Agent has a crush, Slade uses it to his advantage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the song playing https://listenonrepeat.com/?v=Pt1ZmkxBWik&s=&e=#XYL%C3%98_-_Ride_Or_Die

When Evelyn saw Robin the next day they didn’t talk about it. The kiss had awakened something in her that she’d only ever felt faintly before, but she was a dog chasing cars; wouldn’t know what to do with one if she ever caught it. She got a little rush every time he paid attention to her now, but didn’t know how to pursue him or even admit to herself that she liked being near him in a different way than she did the others. Agent preferred blowing off steam in the form of a fight, but the titans introduced her to different forms of recreation; none of them were old enough to get into a club on their own, but the Teen Titans were well enough known that a bouncer might let them slip past the ropes on the merit of their fame alone. Evelyn didn’t have anything to wear to a club, going dressed in Agent’s clothes, and like Robin, wearing her mask. She felt more comfortable invisible in a crowd and her mask helped her do that. They might have gotten in but the bartenders knew they were underage and gave them cokes at the bar.

This didn’t irk Agent too much, remembering the first and last time she had gotten drunk and not wanting to relive the experience anytime soon, sipped her soda contentedly. The dance floor was dark; colored lasers rotated from the ceiling in an electric light show. The music was current as far as Agent could tell but she wasn’t sure. She watched the people dancing, trying to pick up on what was appropriate in the venue. It didn’t look too hard. She glanced to Robin beside her, he was holding his drink leaned up with his elbows on the bar, nodding in time with the music. She got that little rush just looking at him, thinking about moving with him the way the bodies in the crowd were moving. Even with the mask he was good looking. Lately she’d been experiencing a lot of things that she never had had the opportunity to before. Right now she wanted to experience Robin.

She put her drink down on the bar, not looking at him when she took his hand, pulling him to the dance floor. He put his drink down as he was pulled away, following her easily to the dance floor. The song had a slow and heavy beat, just fast enough to sway her hips to, lifting her arms in the air and dancing the way the other girls around her were.

_Yeah, I think it's cute when you tell me lies, come feel my heart beating_

They started out a polite distance apart but the song drew them together, Robin’s hands coming to rest on her hips. Her heartbeat seemed to stutter when he touched her, leaping with euphoria. She was drunk on the music, tossing her hair; she wasn’t brave enough at first, but she saw a girl put her arms around her partner’s neck as they danced and she felt safe in imitation, looping her arms around Robin’s neck and moving with him.

_All I wanna do, all I wanna do is ride with you_

It felt like they were racing again, that same exhilaration pumping hot through her veins. She didn’t think anything would ever match the adrenaline rush of fight or flight situation but here she was in Robin’s arms feeling untouchable, burning bright. She’d never been this close to anyone like this and a surprise to end all surprises- it felt good. In the moment, it even felt safe.

_Come feel my heart beating (Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)_

Safe. For the first time in years, she realized that she felt safe here with him, staring at him enraptured in the dim club. She took a deep breath in and unsure, brought her face close to his again, hovering millimeters from his lips. He took the invitation to kiss her and she closed her eyes, savoring the innocent feeling of their lips pressed together. Above their heads, a security camera’s little red light blinked steadily. When they broke apart he smiled at her and she looked away, releasing him and breaking away from his hands. Even for all of the newness and loveliness of this feeling, all she really knew for sure was that when something felt that good, it wouldn’t last long. She back tracked to the bar and got a new drink- she might have been a teenager but she knew not to leave her drink unattended unless she wanted to wake up in an alley without underwear. The of the group converged upon the bar for new drinks, Beast Boy and Raven standing between her and Robin. They looked at each other over their teammates’ heads, the music too loud to say what they were thinking- and perhaps not prepared to.

Agent felt the shift in the crowd first. The music was still blasting, but the edges of the crowd moved like a wave, in and then out again, the first warnings of a tsunami. Screams slowly cut through the music; the DJ shut down the music and they could hear it, the titans immediately on guard. The sound of weapons firing in the crowd became apparent and the wave reached the bar, people running in every direction. Robin dropped his drink and took charge of the situation immediately.

“Titans, go!”

They broke, Starfire and Raven igniting their powers and the group launching forward through the thinning crowd. Masked figures were filtering into the club, at least a few dozen of them bearing hand held energy weapons. A few in the front had taken hostages as if to better get the titan’s attention.

“Are they henchmen or robots?” Beast Boy asked. One with a hostage raised his weapon threateningly- Agent threw her knife and nailed him in the forehead. Electricity sparked around the wound, a crackling feedback. The woman he’d had in a headlock was released and ran screaming from the area.

“Guess that answers that!” Said Robin. Agent bulled straight ahead, retrieving her knife from the fallen android and using its body as a jumping off point to send a flying kick to the chest of another.

“What is going on? Where are they coming from?”

Agent and Robin saw the flash of a shape at the same time, but she was closest and launched herself after its footsteps.

“Agent!” Robin shouted, but he was immediately occupied by three bots coming down fast and hard and had to turn his attention to his attackers. Just as well, Agent thought- if Slade was here he was after her and she was tired of him. She was going to put an end to him, quietly and out of sight of the titans before he could do any more damage to her new life. Let Robin be distracted, he didn’t need to see this.

She ran out of the club after Slade and into the back alley. She looked for him and heard footsteps above her, seeing him running along the roof. Leaping onto the hood of a car, she caught the last rung of a fire escape and pulled herself up, footsteps tak-tak-ing on the metal rungs as she climbed after him. It was when she mounted the roof that she saw that he had stopped running, standing on the far edge of the roof as if waiting for her.

“What do you want, Slade? And don’t give me the same bullshit you’ve been giving me.” She said, throwing her words across the roof. He began to pace along the edge, a large sword in hand and resting on his armored shoulder.

“You’re right,” He said. “I wanted to get your attention. Do I have it?” When she didn’t answer, he continued. “I find myself in a predicament. You and I would do so well together, but you don’t seem to see what I see, so I’ve been looking for other...motivations. We’re all just animals, Agent, we have needs and wants. I can see that you’re a strong willed individual, so I’ve come up with a solution to both our problems.”

“And?”

“Oh, it’s coming.” He said. Agent tensed, expecting an attack from auxiliary forces. “Here it is now.” Robin came swooping in from above, retracting his jump line as he came down, foot aimed for Slade’s face.

“Slade!” He shouted. Robin was skilled, but Slade was twice his size and used that to his advantage, grabbing his foot before it landed and swinging him past his shoulder and to the ground, narrowly avoiding throwing him off the roof entirely. He aimed the sword at Robin’s throat, preventing him from getting up.

“It seems I’ve been using the wrong pressure point. Now I’ve corrected that, Agent...lets talk.” He said, lifting Robin’s chin with the point of the sword.

“Let him go, Slade!” She shouted.

“It looks like you have a choice here. I’ll let him go, of course. If you agree to come quietly.”

“And if I don’t?”

“I have insurance for that.” He said, raising his other arm to aim a device on his wrist towards Robin. He clenched his fist and a dart shot out from it, hitting Robin in the neck. Robin grunted in pain and ripped it out of his flesh, but it was too late.

“What the fuck did you do??” She shouted, in a panic. The last time Slade had gotten involved with needles she’d spent a week unconscious and come out of it permanently changed.

“This?” Slade asked casually. “Nanites. I could explain the scientific basis for what they do, or I could just show you. For example.” A button appeared in his hand. He hit it and suddenly Robin was flat on the ground, choking and twitching as if electrified. Agent’s pulse spiked, throwing out her hands to stop him.

“Alright!” She barked. Her voice was higher pitched than she’d meant it to be, sounding more like a teenage girl in distress than the genderless shadow that frightened criminals with a single word. It wasn’t a decision. She holstered her knife, putting her hands up as if faced with a gun. Slade pressed the button again. “Alright.” She said, pacing towards them. Robin struggled up to his hands and knees.

“Agent, don’t!! You don’t have to do this!” He shouted. He was wrong. She did. Slade had the upper hand over both of them right now. The best thing to do was reset the playing field and hope for a victory on another day. And she had the best chance of doing that from the inside. She stepped within Slade’s reach willingly, and as he put a blindfold over her eyes, the last thing she said to Robin was:

“I’ll be okay."


	7. Trials and Tribulations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: A conversation and some light torture. You know.

By the time Slade had taken the blindfold off she was somewhere beneath the city. Agent was a cat on edge with him in the room, not knowing what he might have up his sleeve but knowing that he’d hurt Robin if she didn’t obey. This led her to follow him quietly into a room which- when the lights flickered on- was sterile and white, more like a morgue or a kill room than anything else. There was a drain in the tiled floor and a complicated looking set of computers set into the wall. A stand next to the table held medical instruments on it. Instinctively she halted as soon as she saw it, wanting to turn around and claw her way out of the room, _through_ Slade if necessary like a rat escaping fire. His gloved hand descended on her shoulder, causing her to jump, and he commanded her into obedience.

“Agent. Move forward.” He said, his voice low and dangerous, forceful in a familiar way. “Sit down.” He said. She had to hop to do so, situating herself on the table with her feet dangling above the tile like a child. Ever since she’d woken up from Slade’s medicine she’d been launched into the middle of a growth spurt, but in this environment, with this man, she felt small. She was not kept in suspense long, Slade picking up a butterfly needle.

“What is it with you and needles?” She asked.

“Hold out your arm.” He said, ignoring her.

“For?” She asked, withholding her arm. “This is going to go a lot smoother if you tell me what’s going on, Slade. I just might be more willing to listen.” His mask was ever expressionless, his eyes hidden in the depths of the eye holes, but he chuckled, low and gravelly. It was the first time she’d ever heard him laugh and the sound made her spine prickle.

“I’m fairly sure you’ll listen either way.” He said, taking her arm himself. She jerked in his grip, staring at him defiantly, and he paused, gripping her so tightly that it hurt. He was strong. He stared right back. “I’m taking blood.” She relaxed her arm and he found a vein, inserting the needle. “I know you want to fight me, but if you learn to obey you might even find yourself benefiting from this arrangement.” Blood wound its way down the tube and into a small vial.

“Oh?” She asked. “Do you plan on telling me who my father is?” She didn’t expect a yes, that deal seemed to have gone out the window the moment Slade had correctly assumed he’d have to threaten someone she cared about instead of offering another to her.

“That information is for good girls.” He said. “You’re not a good girl, are you, Agent?” She was a little perturbed that he’d phrase it that way, making her feel small and at the same time, dirty. Being around Slade launched her headfirst into survival mode, and she’d done a _lot_ of things to survive.

“I could be.”

“Is that so? I’ll have to see that.” Of course. He was like any older man that wanted to hold power over her. They did a lot of things to gain it and she’d been there before; she wouldn’t fall for it, but if she played her cards right she could direct it. Kay had always told her that sex was about power, and power was about sex. He certainly seemed the type to bask in power and that told her a lot about him and how to play him. He removed the first container of blood and attached another.

“What are you going to do with it?” She asked.

“Tests.”

“Robin already tested my blood. He couldn’t tell me anything.” She said. He made a low humming noise.

“...Or he didn’t tell you anything.” He said, attaching a third vial. She hoped that this was the last one. She didn’t like what he was insinuating. Then again, Robin was good with secrets. He never took off his mask. She didn’t know where he was from or what his name really was. Slade took her silence as what it was, doubt. “I know Robin better than you think. We go way back.”

“Oh, and I assume you’ll tell me everything.” She said, sarcastically.

“Robin doesn’t share authority. You can think of us as a partnership. I’ll be nice to you if you’re nice to me. And by nice, I mean obey me unquestioningly.”

“Sure,” She said casually, as he slid the needle from her arm and placed a cotton ball and bandage on the needle wound. She bent her arm at the elbow to place pressure on it. “Lets say I do that, Slade.” Her voice was conversational. “Lets say I do everything you tell me to. I’ll do whatever you want. But I want things too. And if you don’t hold up your end, I’ll reconsider how much Robin means to me.”  
  
She could sense the smirk behind the mask, calling her bluff. The trials went on. She didn’t know how long. He tested the blood and then her as the results came back, putting her through her paces. She crushed them one by one, pushing herself harder than she ever had before and finding herself capable of every test he put to her. Some things she didn’t remember and some things she wished she didn’t remember. Some things came with screaming and blood, others came quietly with a needle and slipped away into merciful sleep. Why he didn’t keep her drugged all the time she didn’t know- it didn’t take much to do it, her defenses against chemicals lower than they ever had before. So her power came with consequence. She supposed he liked the challenge of her awake and sharp, grimy and teeth gritted. She wondered if the titans were working on a way to get rid of Slade’s nanites. She didn’t think of rescue, knowing that she’d gotten herself into this situation and she was the only way out. With every test Slade gained information, but so did she. She knew what she was capable of now, and with every step into this new light a plan grew. She listened and observed, always sharp eyes, sharp ears, cunning desperate mind.


	8. A Night to Forget

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: Don't do drugs, kids. Content warning for underage sex and dubious consent

Agent floated in and out of her mind. She never knew what Slade had her on, but she knew he’d been experimenting with dosages because instead of passing right out tonight she was in this half in, half out, semi-euphoric state. She was hardly aware of what she was doing as she maneuvered her legs over the side of the cot and her feet hit the ground, moving mechanically.

Daily tasks and challenges ran back to her childhood, back to her mother in the dojo demanding that she push herself. Take another punch, learn how to deal with pain and with frustration until you overtake the teacher. Every day he tore her apart and she rebuilt herself better, faster, stronger. She was simply...learning. Whatever else she felt about the pain it came with, she shoved down deep inside and locked it away. But a thought formed in her mind like slowly crystallizing sugar. While he taught her to be a better machine, Slade was also planning something. He wasn’t going to keep his word. Eventually he’d hurt Robin, and he’d use her to do it. He wasn’t sharpening her for no reason.

How could she stop him? What did he want? Control. _Give him what he wants, and when his guard is down, kill him._ It made sense. It was logical. He didn’t see her as a threat or else he wouldn’t have let her keep her knife. She’d make him regret that. She’d make him regret ever wanting her in the first place. She found him in the base of operations, in front of his screens. He was watching footage of the titans, but she couldn’t tell where or when they were, or if they missed her. The flickering of the screens made her woozy in her drug induced state. He paused the feed at the sound of her footsteps.

“You should be lying down.” He said.

“Such fatherly concern.” She said, sarcastically. She might have been slurring a bit. Not yet turning around, his voice took on a creeping lack of patience.

“What are you doing up, Agent?” He asked.

“Don’t you think we’ve gotten to know each other very well lately? Maybe too well?....Show me yours and I’ll show you mine.” He seemed faintly amused by this, recognizing that she was under the influence.

“I already know about yours.” He said.

“But do you really? How do you know you know everything?” She asked. She grasped her tank top by the hem, peeling it up past her rib cage and over her shoulders and tossing it onto the floor to stand there in her pants and bra. Everything she owned was black. He turned around when he heard the fabric hit the floor, looking at her and taking a second to reply.

“What do you think you’re doing?” He finally asked.

“I’m showing you mine.” She said, unzipping her pants and shimmying out of them, revealing a pair of black panties. “Isn’t that what you really want, Slade, deep down? You want me all to yourself.” She put her hand on his armored chest, tracing a line down the metal plating. “I think the term you used was ‘obedient’? Or was it that you wanted me to be a good girl?” His hands, unusually hesitant, hovered over her hips. She pressed her body to his and looped her arms around his neck, having to stand on tiptoe to do so. She was screaming for him to take the bait, but also the world was shimmering a little and she needed the support. The drugs he had her on made her feel loose limbed and swimmy.

“Agent...What’s the square root of pi?” He asked her. She considered a second, recognizing a test but not what for. It was an easy answer, a piece of trivia she should know, but when she tried to focus she couldn’t pull up the answer.

“You know, it’s some math numbers.” She said after chewing it for a second and coming up with nothing. She was well and truly intoxicated. His hands closed in on her hips and she felt impending victory rise in her like a wave.

“I can tell that took a great effort.” He said. He squeezed her hips as if testing the flesh there, hands coming under to cup her ass. Without warning, he lifted her and she found her legs wrapping around his waist, he leaning back against the console to support their combined weight. She probably weighed about nothing to him but his hands wanted to wander and she let them. She’d never gone this far, even with the last mark she’d used her feminine charms on, but the drugs let her not care so much about what he wanted with her. Her eyes fixed on the screen behind his back and found there a paused image of Robin’s face. She focused on it, the shimmering image of him, and found herself sighing, relaxing in Slade’s grasp and grinding against him the way she might if it were Robin she were seducing. She thought of him instead, growing warm and pliant in Slade’s hands. She didn’t even mind when he pulled her panties aside. Her bra was shoved up over her breasts, high on her chest and she was exposed, the metal of his suit cold against her bare skin. Somehow her rational mind could not break through the haze of drugs, this an impulse that had gone too far. He paused for a moment, a placeholder in time where he considered what damage he might do and found it acceptable.

“Don’t remember this in the morning.” He said. The pain of him entering her didn’t even register, but a low moan erupted from her fevered brain and out her mouth as he did, body reacting when her mind could not. She should have been deeply concerned that her playacting had gone this far and focused on the end result, but she wasn’t in any state to be planning well. She acted purely on impulse, mouth open and eyes fixed on Robin’s image on the screen as Slade moved her. Somewhere deep in her, her subconscious told her that as she was at her most vulnerable, so was he. Slowly, she went for the knife he had at the back of his belt. Her fingers wrapped around the handle and pulled it from its sheath and he didn’t notice. Her arm crept back and she leaned back, looking at his mask as if she could see his eyes and flipping the knife in her hand so it was secure in her palm and pressed against his neck. She didn’t hiss or snarl, all of her usual aggression held under by the drugs. Intuitively she knew that she had a purpose but found herself unable to dig her way out of this hole and so as she pressed it to his throat she forgot to slash. Slade laughed, moving one arm around her waist and thrusting so hard that she whimpered.

“Why am I not surprised?” He said. With his other hand he gripped the wrist that held the knife and squeezed hard enough that her hand went numb and the knife dropped from her hand and to the ground where it clattered against the concrete. “Was that the plan? Get me to drop my guard and cut my throat?” He let her wrist go and gripped her throat instead, cutting off not air but bloodflow. Stars exploded in Agent’s vision. “If you were at the top of your game that might have worked, but lucky for me you’re not, are you?” Self preservation was not as asleep as the rest of her and she pulled at his fingers with both hands but found her strength sapped by the drugs and herself not in the correct mindset to remember that she could be much stronger than him, if only for seconds. Her vision went from spotty to dark and she was about to pass out.

“Don’t forget, I’m in control here.” He said.


	9. Foreplay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: Chess as foreplay

Agent woke groggy. She’d been having the most bizarre dream about Robin. She lay there in her cot for a few minutes, blinking the gum out of her eyes and staring up at the ceiling. The more she tried to remember the dream the more broken it seemed. Just flashes of Robin’s face and snatches of a feeling that she couldn’t place as either good nor bad- maybe a little of both, but definitely strong and strange. She peeled herself up off the cot and put on her boots, lacing them up tightly and trying to shove thoughts of the dream out of her head. She didn’t need that kind of distraction right now. She felt close to something, to figuring out a solution. Slade had given her only so many pieces of the puzzle but they were almost enough to being done with him and out of here. When she found Slade, he was waiting for her with his back to the door and his hands clasped behind him. A small table was in the middle of the room set with a chess board and two chairs facing each other.

“What’s this?” She said.

“You didn’t react well to last night’s doseage so I thought we’d do something different today. Sit.” He said. Eyeing him and the chessboard, she sat down at the white player’s side. She hadn’t played chess since she was small. She remembered the rules, but this seemed an unlikely turn of events and so she approached it with caution. Picking up one of the pieces, she inspected it. Supposedly there was a limited number of gambits you could make in chess, and she knew it and she knew he knew it. So what was he trying to get her to do?

“How caring. React well how?” She remembered falling into her cot but nothing past that. That and her dream. He sat down across from her.

“I’ll suffice to say that you weren’t yourself.”

“That’s the point of the drugs, isn’t it?” She asked, making her first move.

“Aggressive.” He said, referring to her knight, which had advanced over the head of her pawns. He moved a piece. “The point isn’t to make you tractable, Agent.”

“Could have fooled me.” She said. She considered the board but not too hard, moving a pawn on the edge of the board.

“I want you to be the best, and that means pushing you beyond your limits, making new limits.” He said. “I’ll accept nothing but the best from you because I know you capable of it.”

“Now you’re really sounding like a father figure.” She said. She was extrapolating data, of course, never having had a father figure. Only fucked up mother figures and one in the grave. He made his move and then looked at her, tenting his fingers together in front of the mouth of his mask.

“Take off your mask.” He said. She didn’t expect this.

“Why?”

  
“I want to talk to Evelyn.” 

“Maybe she doesn’t want to talk to you.” She said, eyes on the board.

“When do I make suggestions, Agent.” He said. It wasn’t a question. She’d had her rebellious moment so she obeyed this time, reaching up and removed her domino mask, placing it on the table beside the board. 

“So? I showed you mine, show me yours.” She said. His hand halted halfway to his chess piece as if taking in what she’d said, then grasped the piece. He moved another pawn, freeing his bishop. She didn’t look at the board, staring at him instead and refusing to make her move until he gave her what she wanted. After a moment of staring between them he grasped his mask at the top and pulled it away. For a while she stared at his face. It was a handsome one; he was older than she’d thought, a strong jawed man with an entirely white beard and an eyepatch over his right eye. That explained the lack of eyehole on that side of his mask. The eye that was left was a striking blue. She broke eye contact, looking back to the board and picking out her move. “I don’t suppose you’ll tell me who I’m talking to.” She said.

“Slade. Always Slade.” He said. He sounded faintly amused for some reason.

“How’d you lose the eye?”

“Love.” He said.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but lie better.” She said.

“I’m a much more complicated creature than you give me credit for. People aren’t black and white, there are shades of gray in every person. But you know about shades of gray better than most, don’t you.” He said. He took her knight. “You’re kept in bondage by hope, but most of all fear. Fear is a form of love, Evelyn.”

“I don’t see where you’re going with this.” She said.

“I dangle a man you’ve never known in front of you and you reject my offer. You’ve never had a father and thus cannot love him. There is no fear of losing what you’ve never had. I threaten to take Robin away from you unless you leave him, and you leave him.” She stared very hard at the board so she wouldn’t have to look at him but couldn’t concentrate on the pieces. How could she know what love was when she was never in an environment where it could grow?

“Your point being?” She said, obstinately.

“You’re being very thick, Evelyn.” He said. He took her bishop deftly.

“I’m hearing all the philosophical stuff where you think you’ve got me figured out, but I’m not hearing your endgame.” She said. She took his queen with her pawn.

“Do I divulge the whole plan to you so you can desperately think of ways to foil me at the last moment?” He asked. She looked up and he was looking at her, not the board.

“You’re in charge here, Slade.” She said, looking back at the board. He moved his king.

“Why do you think you’re here and not Robin?” He asked. She couldn’t tell if it was related or if he was changing the subject.

“You think I’m easier to take advantage of.” She answered, the truth bitter in her mouth.

“Is that supposed to make me feel bad?” He asked. Her lips twisted to the side but she didn’t answer. “That’s far from it. You’re here because Robin has been in your position and has disappointed me.” What that told her was that Robin had been where she’d been and _escaped_.

“So what am I supposed to do for you that Robin couldn’t?” She asked. His king had escaped her but her knight was making rounds on the black side of the board and he’d lost a few pawns. Was she punishment for Robin’s failure in Slade’s eyes? Sure he was using her, but how dirty was she supposed to feel about it when she was planning on backstabbing him at the first opportunity?

“You’re going to live without fear, Evelyn.” He cornered her king. It was boxed in on both sides and had nowhere to go. “Checkmate.” He said.


	10. So You Had a Bad Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: Toxic father figure attempts to 'drown out' a rebellious teens attempts at escape

Agent thought Slade was across the compound but he was everywhere, in and out of shadows, omniscient, omnipresent. He found her, catching her by the collar and swinging her into the wall where he held her with his hand on her throat.

“Where do you think you’re going?” He asked.

She was sweating and aching, torn down from another day of sparring, of trials and near misses. She’d had the whole day to think about it and every time she did she missed some crucial attack or misused her strategy. Today had been less of a test and more of a beating, and Slade was not pleased. Today was the day that he had told her her part in his plan and it was also the day that she’d had enough. He wouldn’t hurt Robin if she wasn’t around to see it, or else it wouldn’t be punishment. So it was best that she do what she did best and get gone.

“Away from you! I’m done!” She grated, hands coming up to clutch at his choking fingers, trying to pull them away. Obedience had gotten her this far, and despite the difficulty she’d survived everything Slade had thrown at her, but she was no longer willing to be obedient. She had bent but she would not break. She would not be his instrument to kill the titans. She was stronger than him. Her eyes flashed black and she ripped his hand away from her without effort, her own strength easily overwhelming his. For good measure she took a swing at him, connecting with a nasty socking sound and sending him flying backwards and to the floor. As she turned to run the whites of her eyes faded back and her power was gone, just in time. Tak-tak-tak went her footsteps down the hallway, knowing only a vague idea of how to get out but determined to escape not only this place but the city. On foot would take a while but she could steal a vehicle if she could make it to the surface.

She made a turn and there he was, striding towards her down the hallway. Her boots skidded on the floor at her abrupt stop but something in her told her to keep going, that she could make it if she only made it past him. Bulling forward, she hit him head on but she hadn’t recovered yet and her power didn’t activate and instead of knocking him to his feet again he caught her and spun her around, grabbing a fistful of her hair and dragging her from her knees to her feet again.

“I really thought we were past this, Evelyn.” He said. He sounded disappointed. “But I suppose what must be done, must be done.” He marched her back down the corridor, her twisting and snarling the whole way. He dragged her into the room where she showered; it was an old institution style bathroom, open and broken white tiled. Dragging her to the closest sink on the wall, he plugged the drain and turned on the tap full blast.

“Stop!” She twisted and screamed but she knew that he wouldn’t stop. A cold god in control of her life, of her body if not her mind. He pulled the mask from her face and she knew that it was to begin her tearing down; to strip her defenses away, first he must take her from Agent to Evelyn again. She knew what was coming and tried to get in as much oxygen as she could in preparation but panic had shortened her breaths and she found herself unprepared to go under. He shoved her face under the water and a frenzy of bubbles escaped her mouth in a scream of defiance and fear, her shoulders convulsing this way and that as she tried to escape. But he was stronger than her, bigger than her and she could not. There was a clawing in her chest, begging her to inhale but all was water. Just before she gave in he pulled her up and she gasped, mouth open wide.

“Let the titans go. Let all of that go!” He said.

“No!” She gasped. He plunged her under again. She tried, really tried, but she had already exhausted her air supply and it was a short time before she was struggling to be let up again. He pulled her up and continued drilling her.

“If you leave, I will hunt you to the ends of the earth. If you try to kill yourself, I will revive you. This,” he put emphasis on the word, “Is inevitable. You can’t escape me. Do you understand, Evelyn?” Down into the water again. Her hands gripped the sink’s slippery sides tight, trying to push herself up and back out of the water, but a strong hand kept her there. Her struggles were weakening. _Just give him what he wants and it’ll stop. Pretend._ Her desire to live another day had kept her clawing all of these years, kept her running, and now it told her to give in- that nobody and nothing was worth dying for here in this underground place, with Slade holding her under. Her hand slapped the side of the sink, tapping out and hoping that he would take it to mean that she had given up. Indeed he hauled her out of the water and she fell to the floor gulping like a fish. Water rushed up in between her gasps and she turned to the side to throw it up, fingers splayed on the tiled floor.

“Do you understand, Evelyn?” He repeated, standing over her. The faucet was still running, water spilling over the sides of the sink. She crawled a ways away as if to escape him, nodding as she coughed and caught her breath. “I need more than that.” He said. She knelt there with her arms cradled in her lap, bowed and shivering, wet.

“Yes, Slade.”


	11. Bang

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: "Bang Bang, he shot me down, bang bang I hit the ground....bang bang my baby shot me down"  
> -Nancy Sinatra, Bang Bang (my baby shot me down)

The next night:

Agent didn’t know what to think anymore. Slade won every battle. He’d ground her down further than she’d ever been even at her lowest point alone on the street. He’d given her a new suit, a form fitting piece composed of metal scales. The most important part, he’d told her, were the gloves that had fingertips to cover her prints but were otherwise open from the second knuckle to the base of the palm. Tonight was the night and she felt the pressure of game time; this was it, do or die. She wasn’t sure which it would be, or if Slade would really revive her should it fall to the latter. He had almost broken her the night he held her under, but she was nothing if not desperate. Confused, despondent. It was clear that there was no escape but still she would not obey _this_ command. She was given no choice, however, in her current position. He’d locked her to a crate in his staging place- a warehouse in an industrial district far north of the city 

“You could have told me I’d be bait.” She snapped.

“You weren’t going to be bait until your little outburst yesterday. You were going to stand beside me, but now you’re going to have to earn that.” He said. “Sit tight, it’ll start soon.” And he melted into the shadows. She considered how to get out of this and knew the answer, but it was an unpleasant one that she would be punished severely for. A countdown started in her earpiece. The titans must be here. She waited, knowing her part to play in this. Slade had tested her and strength was not her only power. If she chose to refuse to use it, he would die. But so would she. And he knew she wasn’t ready for that. Not she, the survivor at all costs.

“Agent?” She had been deep in thought but looked up at the sound of Robin’s voice, unsure if she was hallucinating him for a moment. He was there, really there in front of her. And he had to leave if he was going to live. “I’m going to get you out of here.” He said, pulling out a lock picking kit and setting to work on her shackles.

“Where’s Slade?” She asked.

“The others are distracting him. I had a feeling he’d have you here.” He said. She shoulder checked him and the lock pick dropped from his surprised hands.

“Get out of here!” She hissed. “I can take care of myself, you have to get them out!”

“Don’t you want my help??” He asked. He sounded betrayed, as if she’d asked for this. She didn’t want this. She couldn’t watch someone else die the way she had watched Cainey die.

“The whole place is set to blow, Robin! It’s a trap, I’m bait! You have to go!” She said, begging, begging him to just leave. The countdown in her ear got lower. Doubtless Slade was drawing the titans in towards the rendezvous point where it would happen

  
“Then I’m not leaving you here.” He said. She wanted to punch him. 

“I’ll be fine, trust me, it’s part of his plan- He needs me to get out, but I can’t protect you all.” She yanked at her chains in desperation, stomping at him as if she could scare him away like a stray dog. “He’s coming! Robin! Go!” Robin hit his communicator and spoke into it.

“Titans, disengage. Stop pursuit and maintain a perimeter to clear civilians from the area.” He said. Agent’s whole body sighed with relief. “How much force can we expect?” He asked. She shook her head.

“At least enough to level a city block. This whole place is coming down.” She said. “You really need to go.”

“I’m not letting him have you.” He said. Her stomach twisted. Unless there was something she didn’t know, Slade still had control of Robin through the nanites. He was the worst person to be handling this.

“Are you not listening to me? You have eight minutes and this place goes up like the fourth of july!” She tugged and twisted at her bonds. “If you’re still here, he’s going to win!” There was a determined glint in Robin’s eyes.

“I’ll go down fighting, then.” He said. She felt like screaming. Was he really willing to die for her? When she wasn’t sure herself if she would be willing to die for him? A figure appeared over his shoulder, having known that he would be there even if the others had retreated. “Slade.” Said Robin, feeling the presence behind him. The countdown continued. She knew it was in Slade’s earpiece too.

“I’m begging you, just run. Just trust me, _run, please. Robin_....” Her voice cracked on his name. She realized that she was truly afraid of Slade and what he could do to them.

“Robin. I knew you’d be foolish enough to take the bait.” Slade said. He had a bo in hand, spinning it through his fingers. “Are you really willing to die for a girl?”

“Are you?” Robin asked, facing him. He removed two escrima sticks from their holders on his back. Agent desperately calculated. Slade could best Robin. The beaten little voice in the back of her head told her that if she tried to help Robin and failed, she’d be in for punishment worse than a little waterboarding. The two males circled each other in the space, sizing the other up. Six minutes to go.

The chain of the shackle was threaded through a bar on the crate; only one hand had to be freed and she would be able to escape. Being right handed, she chose her left hand to sacrifice. Gripping her left thumb tight, she steeled herself and then, using her whole body as a lever so she wouldn’t be able to stop the momentum halfway through, she yanked.

When it snapped she bit back a scream, knowing that if she distracted Slade he would stop dallying with Robin and activate the nanites. He only hadn’t because he liked playing with his food. It came out a muffled moan of agony. The countdown continued. In five minutes he would hit that button and end Robin and she wouldn’t even have a body to cry over. Eyes watering with pain, she slowly pulled her hand through the shackle as fresh tears flowed down her cheeks. Robin and Slade were distracted but she was free so she shook the shackles so they’d jangle loudly, shouting to Slade. Her voice was shaky, watery with pain.

“Slade! You want to live? Come get me.” To her surprise she had distracted him enough that not only did Robin land a hard blow to Slade’s face, he knocked him hard enough to send him reeling backwards. Had he not been wearing a mask she might have been able to read whatever expression passed over his face at that moment, but regardless she turned to run. “ROBIN, RUN.” She yelled and then she was gone. They had three minutes to go and Slade knew it. And if he couldn’t catch her, he was going to die. If he did....She would wish she was dead. All she had to do was keep him chasing her until the countdown was-

She wasn’t being pursued. Skidding to a halt, she stopped and nearly lost her mind on the spot. She didn’t think, running back the way she’d come to catch up with Slade. His heavy footsteps echoed about her, a shadow flashing from crate to crate. He was on top of them. She had to do something. Using the side of a crate as a leaping off point, she parkoured her way to the top of the containers and ran after him. She had to gain height. Jumping as high as she could, she caught a pipe hanging across her path and used the momentum to launch herself feet forward.

“Slade!” She shouted, coming down with a vengeance, her foot connecting with his face. They tumbled to the ground together, he rolling and landing on one knee and she rolling onto her back and then flipping upwards athletically. As she raised her hands to take the offense she heard something that she had hoped wouldn’t happen.

“Agent! Where are you??” It was Robin’s voice. Panicking, she faltered. Slade took the opening like a striking predator, backhanding her with such force that she was knocked off balance and into a crate. A scrape on her cheek where she’d made contact with the crate reddened with pearling blood, her other cheek reddening from Slade’s hand. He advanced on her, taking her by the throat. He didn’t sound happy and she knew that punishment was incoming but worse than that, if she didn’t do something Robin would be facing the blast unprotected.

“I thought we talked about this, Agent. We talked a lot about this, in fact. You know the consequences for disobedience at this scale...It will not be pleasant for you.” He said.

“I’m done talking!” Her eyes lit black.

“You really think that trick will work tw-” Slade began but as she pulled his hand from her neck with her good hand and twisted it, he went down on his knees with a grunt of pain. She had to be fast before it wore off- faster than ever before.

“Face it. I’m stronger than you, Slade.” She said. Her left hand was out of commission so she struck like a cobra, pulling him towards her by his twisted arm and kneeing him right in the mask. There was a snap under his mask and another grunt. Acting quickly, she pushed him backwards off balance and brought her foot down onto his ribs, relishing the sick crack as she broke his armor and probably a few ribs. Blood started to leak through his mask. She’d broken his nose for sure. Maybe knocked him out. Robin skidded into the row, running towards her.

“Agent! We’ve got to get out of here!”

“It’s too late.” She said, calmly. He met her and she did not take his hand to run, throwing her arms around his neck instead. As confident Slade was in her untested ability to carry someone with her, she was unsure but she was sure that she wanted to save Robin. She could hear Slade getting up- he wasn’t the type to take a beating lying down- but the countdown told her it was too late.

“Hey Slade.” She said. He reached out towards her but she did not move. “Bang.” Her hair blew backwards in the blast wave and then he was gone, the warehouse going up in a blaze of white.


	12. And the Winner Is

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: Robin did a DNA test. And the lucky winner of a brand new kid is....!

The Titans had maintained their distance but gotten nervous when Robin hadn’t reappeared; Cyborg had almost gone back in for him when the whole place lit up. The force blasted them all backwards, tumbling smoking to the ground. They all knew what had happened. Robin, Slade, and Agent had all been in there. Starfire rushed forward, hovering over the tangle mess of conrete and twisted, smoldering shipping containers.

“Robin!” She called. Smoke wafted across the scene. Beast Boy’s ears were flat against his head. There was no way that anyone could have made it out of that alive. Cyborg put his hand on Beast Boy’s shoulders but suddenly his ears pricked up and rotated, catching a sound. The dust cleared and Robin and Agent were picking their way out of the wreckage, both holding onto eachother for support. They both seemed a little singed but otherwise unharmed.

_____________________________

Slade was gone but the nanites remained and their potential for harm. The best of them had put their heads together and come up with an electromagnetic shock to Robin’s system to make them inert, then a full course of dialysis to flush them from his bloodstream. Robin lay on a hospital bed in the Titan’s med center with fresh blood feeding down the tubes and into his veins. Evelyn sat on the next bed over with Cyborg, who was less sure about the treatment that she required. Her left thumb sat at a strange angle, not grotesquely twisted away from her hand, but surely at the wrong angle for use. She could rotate it but not make a closed fist anymore. It had healed during her fight with Slade and now it needed to be re-broken and set in order to properly use her hand again.

“Are you sure about this?” Cyborg asked.

“I really need your help.” She said. She wasn’t looking forward to this, but if she wanted to regain proper movement she had to. She’d shown him the movement with which it had to be broken and she hoped that if luck was kind the original break was still weak enough to snap in the same place.

“And you’ll heal?” He asked, doubtfully. He seemed very hesitant to break her thumbs. The scrape on her face had already healed up.

“That’s why we have this problem.” She said.

“Ok. On the count of three, alright?” Cyborg said, readying himself. “One....Two-” He yanked the way she’d shown him and snapped the bone clean. Not entirely prepared for the pain, she shrieked and then clapped her unbroken hand to her mouth. “Sorry, I thought that’d be easier.” He said. Her hand still in Cyborg’s grasp, she turned to the side and buried her face in the pillow to puff smaller, quieter under-her-breath screams into it. Cringing sympathetically, he set the bone and wrapped it with a bandage as she did so. When he was finished she sat up, stone faced and breathing a little hard through her nose. With any luck it would heal within a couple of hours. It had been a long night and morning was nearing. Cyborg went to check on Robin but left after a while. There was nothing to do but wait.

She knew she stank of sweat and blood and smoke but Agent didn’t want to shower yet. Getting up, she went over to Robin’s bed. He seemed calmer than she would have been, hooked up to so many machines. Maybe she was tired of being hooked up to monitors. For a moment she stood there, not looking at him.

“Do you forgive me?” She asked. She reached out and hooked a finger around his.

“For saving my life? Sure.” He said, smiling. Her face twitched into a frown, then it was pensively blank again. She didn’t trust herself here, with them, anymore. She was just a....just a survival criminal, an adrenaline junkie in a mask. She realized she was still wearing Slade’s suit and she pulled at it with the good fingers and palm of her bandaged hand, avoiding using her thumb.

“I mean this.” She said, looking at him for the first time. It felt like she should have taken her mask off, but she wanted its protection right now.

“I’ve been where you are right now, and I can tell you that it gets better. You’re not the first person Slade’s done this to. Though I guess you were the last.” He said.

“Yeah, he said something about that.” She answered. Sighing, she sat down on the edge of his bed, fingers now playing with his. He worked around them until their hands were interlaced. Somehow this felt more intimate than the two kisses that they’d shared and she shied from it. “I don’t feel guilty that he’s dead. Does that make me not one of you?” He squeezed her hand.

“Hey. You’re one of us whether you can believe it or not. I’m glad he didn’t get to you.” She stared at the sheets for a good long moment. Robin was so solid; he continually believed in her when she was Slade’s tool, when she didn’t know what to believe about herself. He felt like the safest person she might have ever known to tell things she normally would keep locked up. No display of vulnerability, no weakness. But with Robin it seemed okay. He hadn’t turned on her yet, even with good reason to.

“He did.” She said, finally. In this moment, with Robin, she felt almost safe again, safe enough to tell him what she was really thinking. “He really did. There was a point where I almost wanted to die. I just wanted it to be over.” Her voice was very soft. “I didn’t think I was that weak.” There was silence between them for a moment, then Robin let go of her hand, gently taking her by the front of the suit and pulling her down. She let him and it felt like falling, landing in the crook of his arm with her head on his shoulder. Over the bay the sun was starting to come up, lighting the room a soft peach. They watched it come up for a while, the dialysis machine pumping away. It was just when Evelyn thought that Robin had fallen asleep that he spoke up.

“Ag....Evelyn, I need to tell you something.” He said. She was still on hairtrigger from being with Slade so long, searching for minor fluxes in his voice since she couldn’t read his face to tell her his mood and what was next, so the change in his tone of voice put her on edge. She sat up.

“What?”

“While you were gone....I did a DNA test for you. And there was a match in the system for your biological parents.” Against her will, her heart leapt and then stilled, afraid of what she might hear. Of what finality it might carry or what responsibility she had to herself or any family she might have.

“I didn’t ask you to do that.” She said, defensively. It was exactly what Slade had been offering and what she’d been tempted to take, but ultimately the possibility scared her, especially after her stint with Slade. She wasn’t ready to be normal. She would probably never be ready.

“I know. Normally I wouldn’t care, but...Evelyn, will you look at me?” He asked. She did and was confronted with his naked face. He’d taken off his mask. He looked...so normal. Just a kid her age with messy black hair and dark blue eyes.

“Why are you showing me....?” She asked. His face didn’t feel like something she hadn’t earned yet.

“Bruce Wayne is your dad.” He said. He said it as if she was supposed to know who that was. For a moment she stared at him blankly, trying to think of where she might have heard that name before.

“Wayne...?”

“You probably already know your mom came up as Sasha Bordeaux.” He said. At the mention of her mother she squinched up into a ball, pulling her knees close to her chest.

“My mom’s name was Sasha but she didn’t go by Bordeaux.” She said. It was a struggle to remember what she _did_ go by, but Bordeaux wasn’t Evelyn’s last name. To think about it, she didn’t remember her own last name. Had she ever been given one?

“I wouldn’t be surprised. After she left Bruce, she got involved in some government work and disappeared. I’m fairly sure he hasn’t heard from her since you were born.”

“I don’t understand, how do you know this guy?” She asked. He looked dumbfounded for a second.

“Wait, you’re serious, you don’t know who Bruce Wayne is? He’s a billionaire. He lives in Gotham. You’ve never heard of him?”

“No. I don’t exactly watch TV or read tabloids.” She said. If he was a billionaire that probably meant he’d be less likely to accept her. Some kid off the street pretending that he was her father for money. She wouldn’t be pretending or out for money, but maybe he’d see it that way.

“You’re really taking the wind out of my sails here.”

“Sorry?” She said, not sorry at all.

“He’s a good person and he deserves to know.” He said. This Bruce was a stranger and nobody she trusted. She clammed up at the idea of giving herself over to the care of someone she’d never met. And especially the idea of needing care. When it had been an abstract concept she’d been tempted, but having it real in front of her was scary.

“This is too much.” She said. Too much information, too much responsibility, too much.

“Hey. I’m not saying drop everything and go to Gotham, but eventually...He should know.” He looked away. “I’m not super keen on having you leave either. Anyway.” He put his mask back on and she felt that meant he was done being open, but he was still pliant and warm and had a few more hours on the dialysis machine so she settled back into the crook of his shoulder.

“I’ll stay then. Bruce Wayne another day.” She said. Usually something like what had happened might have forced her out of the city and on the road again and she might have gone to Gotham, but she had reasons to stay.


	13. New in Town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: I'm gay, I have aids, and I'm NEW IN TOWN  
> (Evelyn lands in Gotham)

It was the first time she hadn’t left in the night. This time she’d said goodbye. She hadn’t run with nothing, pursued; this time her backpack was full and she had a little money in her pocket. Enough to get her there but not much more. She’d built the bike she was seated on from scraps in the garage and her chop-shop knowledge from Chicago, plus a little tech help from Robin and Cyborg. It was her vehicle out of there, and once it had been finished she’d felt that maybe it was time to go see what was next.

It took a week to get cross country. She took the scenic route but it was getting cold and by the time she’d made it to upstate New York it had started to snow. The house was outside the city but easy enough to find. There it was, down its long driveway, locked behind a ten foot wrought iron gate. The grounds were vast and likely impeccably manicured, but it was hard to tell under the snow. After watching for a moment to see if she could see any lights in the windows, she shut her bike down and it coughed into silence. Looking in either direction the fence went on in either direction for as far as she could see. Kicking the kick stand down, she dismounted and stowed her backpack in the storage compartment under the seat, pulling out the manila envelope that was her proof and stowing it inside her coat for the climb. Gripping the iron bars their chill ate through her gloves. For a moment she considered bending the bars and just stepping through, but vandalism didn’t seem like a great first act to introduce herself with. Instead, bent double and gripping the bars tightly hand over hand, she carefully walked herself up to the top of the gate and then simply turned around and slid down on the other side.

The house got bigger and bigger as she walked up the driveway, the snow getting thicker. A little closer to the house there was what she assumed was a small family cemetery. She didn’t stop to read the names, knowing her mother wasn’t there. When she finally reached the door she raised her hand to knock but remembered her gloves and found a doorbell instead. It took a minute but she didn’t ring twice, waiting patiently instead and being rewarded when a man opened the door. He didn’t match the photos in the magazines- an older, balding but well groomed gentleman in a white shirt, bow tie, and suspenders holding up his dress pants.

His eyebrows asked how she’d gotten in the locked gate, but when he opened his mouth, only one very polite word came out.

“Yes?” He asked.

She reached into her coat and pulled the envelope out.

“I’m looking for Bruce Wayne.”

“Can I ask what this pertains to?” He asked. She hadn’t planned on what to say, not able to come up with anything and thinking that maybe when she was faced with the moment she’d come up with something. So she unpeeled the envelope from her chest and held it out as if delivering a letter. He took it and opened it, sliding the first page above the rim of the envelope and reading it. His eyebrows furrowed and then as he scanned the page and understood they moved upwards. He slid the page back into the envelope and stepped back from the door, opening it wider. “Please, come in, it’s cold. I’ll fetch Bruce, you can wait for him downstairs.”

She was almost surprised but came in, taking pains to wipe her feet on the mat. It was such a beautiful house. Honestly she didn’t know what she had expected, but she hadn’t expected to be invited in so easily. The house was as grand inside as it was out, an obvious turn of the century marvel that had been redecorated with a modern touch. He led her into a sitting room and she sat.

“Can I bring you something hot to drink? Cocoa?” He asked. She had felt strangely calm walking in but knew that it was just the eye of the storm and that something difficult was coming. It had been a long, cold walk and she nodded.

“Please.” She said, politely. He nodded and left. She knew that somewhere in the depths of the house, Bruce was there but it was so big that she felt alone in it. She imagined him and this butler rattling around it like peas in a shell and wondered what it would have been like to grow up here. With two parents. Maybe siblings, if they’d stayed together. This house was far from normal but could it have been better than the street, lonely as it seemed? What if she wasn’t ready for this level of “normal”? What if she couldn’t hack it and she had to go back? Her hands tightened in her lap. She knew that she had the titans to go back to if anything went wrong, but as uncomfortable as she was, her own momentum had stuck her to these train tracks and now she was barreling towards meeting her own father regardless if she would ever be ready.

_____________________________

Alfred stepped into the pool of light cast by the bat cave’s main computer console, carrying a manila envelope close to his chest. Bruce sat there in a turtleneck with a cup of steaming coffee. He was busy with research, but didn’t mind the interruption.

“What is it, Alfred?”

“A young lady has just shown up at the door, carrying this.” Said Alfred, handing him the documents.

“Isn’t the front gate locked?” Bruce mused, sipping his coffee. He took the envelope and pulled the documents out, reading the first page. It was the results of a DNA test. He recognized both the names of the parents, but one he hadn’t heard in almost sixteen years. For a second he sat there staring at the words, percentages, bloodwork. He got caught up in the profile for a moment before reading the name it was attached to. He was in shock for a second, but he was the greatest detective in the world and the pieces fell into place. Sasha’s disappearance suddenly made sense.

“Where is she?” He asked.

“The front sitting room.” Answered Alfred. Bruce took the paperwork with him. There were anomalies that he wanted to look at, but if she was waiting for him- if she was in the house, he had to see her. He stopped in the doorway to see a teenage girl wrapped in a long, worn wool coat. She turned at the noise, staring at him with sober eyes and he had never seen her in his life but he _recognized_ her. She had his dark hair and serious mouth, but it was the high cheekbones and almost roman nose that belonged to Sasha. He didn’t know what to do or say, so he stood there for a second. Her lips parted and then closed again and he knew she was in the same predicament.

“Where’s Sasha?” He didn’t mean for that to be the first question that came out of his mouth, but it was. She stared at him a moment and without looking away, she answered.

“I think she’s dead.”

________________________________

The cocoa was hot and Evelyn warmed her hands gratefully on the mug, holding it cupped in her lap like a small cat. She’d doubled up on the gloves but she’d never been this far up north in the winter. She was about to take a sip when she heard him in the doorway and looked up to see the image from the tabloids staring at her. Her heart did a funny kind of nervous flip flop in her chest, coming to settle somewhere in her stomach. She almost expected him to accuse her of lying right out the gate, but instead he asked about Sasha and she gave him the most honest answer she could. He didn’t seem surprised and that told her that he had indeed known her while she was alive. Perhaps known more than Evelyn did. He came to sit beside her on the couch, facing her. He was holding the documents still, shed from their manila envelope.

“How did she die?” He asked.

“I don’t know.” She said, looking into her mug of cocoa. When she looked up he seemed surprised this time so she clarified. “I didn’t know a lot about her, she disappeared when I was ten.” His face twisted a little.

“Have you been in the foster system?” He asked. She shook her head. She didn’t like the territory where these questions were heading. “Who’s been taking care of you all this time?”

“I take care of myself.” She said, trying not to bristle. “I’m not asking for anything, I just....” She trailed off. What did she want? The fear of a cage had kept her running this long. Was it clarity? No. “I want closure.”

“Closure?” He asked. She nodded, not really knowing what she meant either. “Where are you staying? I’ll send a car to pick up your bags.”

“No bags, just me.” Then she processed what he was saying and put her hands up to stop him. “You don’t have to. You didn’t ask for this. I just came to...” Her purpose in coming got fuzzier and fuzzier the further this conversation went. “Let you know.”

“Consider me notified.” He said. “Wayne Manor has eleven bedrooms though, so I’m sure we could find room somewhere to fit you.” She felt exposed, not used to anyone caring and not liking how honest she felt she had to be with him. “I’d rather you have a place to stay.”

“Who’s she?” Came a voice. They both looked up, seeing a dark haired boy in the doorway wearing a prep school uniform. He’d obviously just come from school, snow in his hair and a backpack slung sloppily over one shoulder. _Who are you?_ Bruce put his hands on his thighs and levered himself up.

“This is Evelyn, she’s going to be staying with us. Evelyn, this is Jason. He lives here.”

Evelyn silently, mentally backpedaled out of this situation as fast as she could but here she was and Bruce was not only making fatherly decisions for her already but he also had another kid and she didn’t know how to handle that. The possibility of him being her half brother fled wildly through her mind and also the fact that Robin hadn’t mentioned him made her clam up. She was barely prepared for a parent, much less a sibling.

“Lives here is a good way to put it.” Said Jason. There was a hint of sarcastic bitterness in his voice.

“Hey, come say-” Bruce said it firmly but Jason had already tramped out of the doorway. There was a silence for a moment.

“Is he...”

“I adopted him last year.” Bruce said, sitting down again. _Oh_. Unconsciously she relaxed into her seat. That didn’t seem nearly as intimidating as the possibility of being related to yet another person. She remembered her Viper and how the engine must be cold by now.

“I did bring a bike. It’s parked in front of the gate.”

“I’ll have Alfred go and get it.” He said.

“I can do it.” She said, standing up, unaware that she was twisting her hands inside her gloves. It made her look fretful and young. “Do you really want me to stay?” She asked. When it came out she immediately felt embarrassed that she’d asked. There was a mirror over the mantle and she caught them both in it and it struck her that she’d never known that she could look so much like another person. Not for a long time. He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. She didn’t react other than swinging her gaze from the mirror up to him. She’d gotten taller but still had to look up to meet his eyes.

“Listen. I know I’m a stranger, but there’s plenty of time to get to know each other. You need to be in school and have a roof over your head. I don’t want to be worrying about where you are and who’s taking care of you. It’s going to be me now.”

Mutely, she nodded. She couldn’t bring herself to form a response because nobody had ever said anything like it to her.


	14. What Kind of People

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything's a new challenge. Featuring: "Please like me", Evelyn style

Bruce had kept the paperwork, but Evelyn had redacted certain parts of the bloodwork before giving it over to him and thus felt safe enough that her dual identities were not in danger of discovery. Besides, what would Bruce Wayne know about metahumans? Alfred, the butler, had set her up in a bedroom on the top floor with a high ceiling and an unused but cared for feel. She’d curled up for a few hours that night to get some sleep but had woken around the wee hours feeling groggy and out of place. She couldn’t stretch out, feeling like the bed was already occupied by some invisible body and she was a stray cat that had interloped on this space. She had lived in worse places it was for sure, but she didn’t think she’d come close to making herself truly at home anywhere but the Titan’s tower. And now that was over. Of course if she chose to cut and run it would be there for her, but what if now that she had made Bruce aware of her he wouldn’t let her go? Suddenly she felt trapped and wanted to run.

A little voice spoke up in her head, not her own- Robin’s, coming to soothe her worries away with his cool logic. _Calm down,_ it said. _It’s just new. You’ve done new before._ That’s right. She took what wasn’t hers and made it hers. It’s what she did. Gotham could be hers, but she needed to take it. Dressing in Agent’s clothes, she buckled on her tools and holstered her knife, using the french doors and a jump line to escape the house without being seen. It was cold. She’d spent a Christmas in Kansas one year and the plains had been covered in snow, but she hadn’t remembered that it could get this cold. Remembering it now gave her mixed feelings about the idea of a home and a family. She’d had one for a short time and knew that it could be sweet, but that it wouldn’t last long. Bruce seemed gentle and dumb from the tabloids and their one meeting. She depended on that. The longer he stayed in the dark about who she really was, the more likely she was to succeed in this new role as daughter, student, sister. Evelyn Wayne, normal person.

Agent walked her bike down the drive, finding the gate closed but unlocked. Mounting Viper on the other side of the gate, she kicked the bike to life and roared towards the city.

____________________________

Evelyn found herself surrounded by abundance. Abundance that was not hers and so she existed in it uncomfortably, blending but with great internal discomfort. Bruce had informed her that she was now enrolled in the same prep academy that Jason went to and would be going Monday morning and at this she bristled. Sasha had tutored her at home. Evelyn had never stepped foot into a school and Jason thus far had avoided her except for the few meals they’d had together. Bruce wasn’t big on family dinners but they’d come across each other in the kitchen when Alfred had prepared food and it was hard to avoid someone else when you were both hungry.

The bus didn’t go out to the estate but Jason had his license and drove a modest little Prius to and from school. The silence between them in the car was thick. Evelyn didn’t know what to say and Jason didn’t seem to want to say anything at all and so they pulled up to the parking lot without saying more than good morning. Evelyn got out, shouldering her brand new backpack, filled with school supplies and a neat little planner. Alfred must have picked all of it up because it was mostly pink. She would not have chosen them herself but they were the trappings of a ready made disguise and so she accepted them gratefully. This is who she was supposed to be here and so she latched on to the beginnings of an image that she would mold her outward appearance into. Changing into this new person was not unlike the way she had changed into others before. Other bodies, other personalities. Same mind.

“Thanks.” She said as she closed the car door. Jason grunted and started off towards the front doors. He knew where he was going and she didn’t, so she followed. She had no records and therefore had had to take placement tests. It had been a while since she’d had any formal schooling but she had placed into the appropriate year for her age group, which was a relief since she figured that if she was to start anywhere it would be best to be with peers who had fewer excuses to see her as an outsider. At this point, blending was very important. Her blue and white uniform, skirt, blouse, and jacket, eased her into it, feeling at home in a crowd where she did not look any different from the next girl.

Classes were a whirlwind. Everything was scheduled down to the minute. School had started for everyone else in the fall and it was now two months in so she was introduced as a transfer student in all of her classes. Standing there at the head of the class as her teachers introduced her was acutely uncomfortable, eyes upon her curious, friendly, hostile, indifferent. What was this interruption? This aberration? Or did they even care? In each class she’d take her seat and look straight ahead, pulling out the appropriate books and following along the best she could. She remembered these things, vaguely, and it wasn’t hard to follow along, so it wasn’t until lunch that disaster hit.

Standing in line to swipe her student card, Evelyn looked down at her tray of food. It could have been worse. The real problem was where to sit. She felt ill prepared, not knowing the workings of her ecosystem anymore. As far as she knew, teenagers were clannish and like any good system of trade did not allow cold introductions. You had to have connections before you were considered their kind of people. The only introduction she had to anyone would be through Jason and despite the fact that he didn’t seem to want her there, she headed for his table on the edge of the cafeteria. It was less populous there and so there were only two people at the table, Jason and a redhead that Evelyn had calculus with. She had her in and chose to use it, sitting across from Jason and smiling.

“Hi.”

“I don’t know you.” Said Jason, promptly. She didn’t feel particularly attached to Jason at this point either, but she was not one for backing down. Instead she turned her smile onto the redhead, reaching across the table and trays to shake her hand.

“I’m Evie. Jason’s sister.” She said. The redhead shook her hand.

“Barbra.” She said, turning to Jason accusingly. “She looks normal to me.” Jason slid down in his seat.

“We’ll see.” He said. “Not like I’d know anything about her.”

“I’m sitting right here and you haven’t exactly made a big effort either.” Said Evelyn, picking up her plastic fork and spinning it deftly into her spaghetti. Jason could be cracked, but what he wanted from her first was yet to be determined. Barbra’s lip lifted in a sardonic half smile aimed towards Jason. Her looked changed, however, focusing on something behind Evelyn’s head.

“Looks like you’re going to have to measure up fast, here comes the welcome committee.” She said. Evelyn turned with the fork halfway to her lips to find herself surrounded by four girls, all in the same uniform. They were wearing pins on their ties that said “Student Council”. Evelyn did not know what to expect but Jason’s look of hesitant expectancy told her that whatever this interaction was about to be, it was a social test. She put down her fork.

“Hiiiiii.” Said the one in front. She had black hair and a gleaming smile. Her hair clip, which Evelyn assumed was not uniform compliant, read “HONEY” in rhinestones. “I’m Angelica, I’m student body president. We just wanted to welcome you to Gotham D Prep and come say hi!” Evelyn opened her mouth to be polite but Angelica plowed right over her excitedly. “We heard there was a new Wayne in town, but you never know what that family is going to produce-” she said, looking pointedly at Jason like he was a crustacean. Then back to Evelyn. “But of course, that entirely depends on what kind of people you are.”

“Is what kind of people I am your business?” Said Evelyn. Angelica blinked, taken aback. The girls behind her laughed shortly and uncomfortably, as if they hadn’t been expecting this. Evelyn had to think real hard about the kind of person she wanted to be here and as much as keeping her head down was a priority, something about Angelica and her crew screamed elitism and Evelyn would have no part.

“I just mean...you have an opportunity here that you’re wasting by sitting with these...” She paused, looking at Jason and Barbara again. “Eccentrics.”

“You know what, fuck you Angie, like you’ve ever done anything interesting in your entire designer labeled life.” Said Jason, giving her the middle finger and sitting back in his seat. Evelyn wasn’t manufacturing her dislike for these girls, but she saw her in and she took it. Lifting her legs over the bench so she could entirely turn around and face them unencumbered, she smoothed her skirt over her knees and looked Angelica in the eye.

“I’m not interested in whatever little elitist-eugenics-private-school cult that you guys have going on, I will not join whatever little club this is, and I would rather you not mention my father or my family in whatever negative light you seem to have them currently under. If you push me, I might not react immediately, but I will wait till you think you are safe and at the height of your power and I make sure you hit rock bottom faster than you can say ‘political sabotage’.” Angelica’s eyes had grown wider and wider during this clear and labeled threat, stammering something, but Evelyn didn’t let her finish, clasping her hands in her lap neatly and with finality. “That’s what kind of people I am, Angelica. You have a good day, now.”

Angelica stormed off, the girls with her beginning to chatter immediately as soon as they were near out of earshot, discussing this cold verbal take down of their current leader and what this new addition to the social ranks of the school could mean. Unconcerned, Evelyn turned back to her spaghetti. Jason was sitting forward in his chair with his elbows on the table, but Barbara was looking after the student council girls with a blank, pensive look.

“Nice.” Said Jason. He seemed much more interested in her presence now. Barbara drank her milk and then put it down, staring at it calculatingly.

“She’s going to retaliate.” She said. Evelyn’s spaghetti had gone stone cold within the span of time that it had taken to say all of this but she shoveled it into her mouth anyway before stopping and consciously making herself slow down. Habits surrounding food were hard to break, but it was one facet of herself that she felt was glaringly obvious as to her origins. Rich people didn’t inhale their food because they knew their next meal was coming, and in abundance. She chewed slower. Angelica didn’t really concern her. She’d faced physical threats much bigger and more dominating than a teenage girl with a badge.

“Let her.” She said. She had gotten what she wanted. She and Jason had several classes together, but the one after lunch period was the only one he walked with her to and even talked on the way. It was an unorthodox way of putting together a family bond, but whatever way she needed to appeal to this new audience she would.

________________________________________________

Angelina’s retaliation came at the end of the school day. Evelyn was exhausted from trying to keep up with dates and names and chemical compounds and equations that she hadn’t heard in years, and was looking forward to being herself again- that was, spending silent time alone locked in her own room doing catch up homework till it was dark and she could play.

Distracted by these things and view blocked by the flood of teenagers that she followed out of the school doors, her sixth sense for danger didn’t light up until she was outside and near the edge of the crowd, and even then she didn’t fully understand what was going on until the shouting began. Men with cameras and recorders were fighting against the flood of uniforms and had made a semi circle around her, Jason, and Barbara, shouting questions into the air. Barbara peeled away and disappeared into the crowd. At first she didn’t know what was going on, but when Jason grabbed her by the elbow to steer her away and to the parking lot it clicked. Thus far she had evaded detection by the media, but her enrollment in school had made her officially exist. The public could and now did know about Bruce Wayne’s illegitimate daughter, and was _that_ a scandal.

“Evelyn! Evelyn can you tell us about your emotional reunion with your father?”

“Miss Wayne! Is it true that Sasha Bordeaux is your mother? Is she still in the country? Can you tell us where she’s been for the last sixteen years?”

“Over here! Can we get a picture of the two of you?”

It was a much different Evelyn that sat in the passenger’s seat than had coldly eviscerated Angelina in the lunchroom, a quiet Evelyn, processing this assault on her privacy and trying to work out an understanding of it. She was familiar with capes and tights in the media and working with the titans had given her a crash course on speculation within it on who these vigilantes were and what they did, but this was her personal life. Bruce dealt with this every time he stepped out the door, but she had been afforded, especially these past few years, a certain anonymity that came with being homeless and on the road.

“They’ll give up after a while.” Said Jason, taking his eyes briefly off the road.

“Will they?” She asked.

“You’ll be boring in a month. I was.” He said. She didn’t know what to believe. She guessed that she would have to start reading the gossip magazines and watching the entertainment shows to see what they were saying about her and formulate a way of response or non-response. She wasn’t ready to be buddy-buddy with Bruce in a traditional father daughter way, but it was something that she might gain knowledge talking to him about how to deal with it. She had a feeling that after being confronted, Angelina was probably the one who had called the press and fed them as much information as they had had. Evelyn felt very out of her element. She needed to stretch her legs and be Agent, not the vulnerable, maskless teenage girl that everyone was making her out to be.


	15. Delicate Creatures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce is trying his best with his new human equivalent of an abused shelter dog, Evelyn doesn't know what to do with a healthy, nurturing father figure

For the first time, Bruce was really, truly at a loss for what to do. Dick and Jason were different. He’d mentored them, raised them in the batcave. And now there was a child not in the batcave, but the house. Two different worlds, and she knew nothing of the cave, of the entirety that was Bruce, of the iceburg under the surface of the water. He supposed that Batman was the reason that all of his romantic relationships had failed; the inability to reconcile both his lives and to choose which truth mattered more. And here he was with this careful stranger who demanded that he be present and responsible as Bruce, 24/7, every day of the year.

And Sasha. Evelyn looked so much like him, but it was Sasha that looked back at him when Evelyn gave him those impenetrable, silent looks. And they were often. He wondered if that was what he was like to people who didn’t really know him. But how much would she let him know her? He was trying to be patient, waiting for time and comfort to loosen her tongue, but she seemed dead set on her mysterious past staying her past. He did admit that he hadn’t been above digging, but there were birth records and nothing else. She existed, on a superficial level, but after a certain age she’d simply...disappeared into the ether, only to be born again on his doorstep. And the records she had given him...Some of the information had been redacted and try as he might, he couldn’t source the original records to read the missing information. He didn’t want to straight out ask her what she was hiding, but he couldn’t figure it out on his own.

Even Alfred slept sometimes, so Bruce emerged into the house and went to the kitchen. It was 4 am and even though Wayne manor ran on different hours than normal households he did not expect Evelyn to be up, but there she was, juggling more than she could carry and standing in the fridge light as if caught

________________________

Evelyn had cleaned up and put on her pajamas just for plausible deniability before going back down to the fridge and digging. When she heard someone come into the kitchen she looked up, then was suddenly blinded by the light coming on.

“Isn’t it a school night?” Bruce asked. He was wearing a teeshirt and sweats.

“I was hungry.” She said, not used to explaining herself.

“It’s ok. You’re allowed to be hungry.” He said. She put the food on the counter behind her and closed the fridge door, getting out of the way so he could do what he was here for. Somehow he’d penetrated an insecurity she held close to the chest, but perhaps not as close as she’d thought. Bruce pulled out a carton of ice cream and got a spoon and surprisingly, hoisted himself onto the counter to watch the masterpiece be meticulously made. “Ants on a log, huh?” She nodded, snapping celery sticks. He paused for a moment as if pondering, then his voice became somewhat considering. “You know, you don’t exist.” She stared at him over her celery, hard. This was not something she’d been prepared for.

“Are we talking in an existential sense?” She asked.

“Legally. It’s been hard to enroll you under my health insurance. They want all sorts of stuff I can’t access so I’ve been having my legal team create some stuff from scratch.” He said, digging into the surface of the ice cream without looking at her. The lack of accusatory eye contact was at least non-threatening. A little sigh of relief slackened Evelyn’s shoulders minutely. She started to spread peanut butter. This was nothing she hadn’t been prepared for, eventually. Of course she didn’t want to say anything. To be silent and to be done would be best, but asking to be parented was naturally asking a lot and she felt she owed him something, especially when things like health insurance started to get involved. “So.” He began, trailing off. She knew where this was going but she couldn’t stop the train when it was already on the tracks so she braced herself for it. “How did you survive?”

She looked up from her peanut butter and he was looking at her and there was no way out. Very very carefully, she pressed peanut butter into the last crevice of celery, trying not to look at him. What story was she to tell? Did he want to expose her or pity her? Accuse her or truly understand what she’d been through?

“I have a great immune system.” She said, knowing this was not what he was asking. He gave her room to ruminate and this coaxed a little more from her. “I ate a lot of garbage. Kept my head down. Stole sometimes. Little things. Food. Medicine. Sometimes I had friends. Didn’t stay in one place for long.”

“Why not?” He asked. She wasn’t placing her craisins on the ready made peanut butter log, rolling them through her hands like dice instead as she thought. Her opinion of Bruce and his public persona not being entirely that smart made her open up a little more than she would if he lived in her world. But he did not.

“Mama told me to.” She said. “Mama told me to run and don’t look back and I didn’t know what else to do, so I kept doing that.”

“Why did she tell you to do that?” He asked. She dragged herself out of her thoughts and looked up at him and he’d put the carton and spoon down.

“She didn’t say. She said....there were people coming and I had to leave.” She said. This prompted a period of silence which she took to begin putting ants on her log as if this were all a normal thing to say and not concerning at all, as Bruce or any rational adult would be.

“And that was it?” He finally asked. “You never saw her again?” She shook her head. A beat passed as if they were separately considering what to do next in light of this information.

Focusing minutely on her ants, she jumped when she felt his hand on her shoulder, looking up with dawning surprise as he guided her against him, wrapping his arms around her securely with her head tucked under his chin. Her mind went blank for a second, a sort of stuck-in-the-throat feeling stiffening her posture- it took her a second to process that there was no danger in this offering and when she did, she accepted it, bringing her arms up to hug him back. Barring Robin once or twice, she hadn’t been hugged in years. It was unfamiliar but her second instinct was an unlearned one, leaning into it and resting her head where it landed low on his chest. By all rights she should feel threatened by his sheer size, but there was something comforting about the scent of his deodorant and the way he could crush her but took great pains not to. It said _You can rest now, I'll take care of you._

She had a million reasons not to trust a stranger, but this was her stranger now.


	16. Hate to Burst Your Bubble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: Evelyn meets a handsome mechanic, Jason mother hens his way through a party

“Well fuck.”

“I told you to let me drive."

“It’s my bike. And if I didn’t see it, you weren’t going to see it either."

Evelyn was inspecting the two inch nail that she’d wrenched from Viper’s front tire and the flat that it had subsequently made. Jason was standing behind her with an extra helmet on his hip. They were parked in a side of the street parking space downtown.

“We should have just let Alfred drive us.”

“Well I needed gas.” She sighed in exasperation. Jason had his phone out and was typing. He flipped it and showed her the screen.

“There’s a shop a quarter of a mile that way down Telegraph.”

They arrived at the garage doors pushing Viper down the sidewalk and as Evelyn handed the bike off to a small team and went inside to get a cup of vending machine coffee. Jason turned his nose up and get his phone out, mapping the closest Starbucks and walking off to find it while they waited for the tire to get fixed. Watching through the Plexiglass, she sipped the shop coffee and regretted not going to starbucks with Jason. As a redheaded mechanic pulled the tire off, she took out her phone and texted Jason to get her a latte. A little while later the tire was replaced and the mechanic went into the office to speak with the receptionist.

He came back out with a receipt in one hand and a dirty rag in the other. There was a smudge of black on his cheek below his eye, which was a bright chipper green. His straight jawline was rough with a five day beard and he moved like a big cat. As he got closer the smell of men’s deodorant, clean cotton, and engine grease oozed deliciously into her nostrils. He smelled like days in the garage with Robin, throwing tools and jokes around and subconsciously, she relaxed.

“Here’s your bill. I, uh, wiped her down for you, not a spot on her.” He said, handing her the receipt and wiping his hands on the rag. Evelyn didn’t see a cleaning charge on the bill. “Interesting build, I’ve never... where did you get her?” When he said “interesting” his face read confusion.

“I built her out of scrap.” She said, relishing the look melting into surprise.

“Really? That’s a very interesting series of decisions you made, putting that thing together.” She had almost decided to be defensive of her build, but his body language wasn’t judgmental, “Did you house machine some of those parts?”

“I had a little help, but I did.”

He opened his mouth excitedly, but stopped himself as Jason came up with the coffee order. Instead of whatever he had been planning on saying, the mechanic reached into his pocket and brought out a business card.

“Roy Harper.”

“Coffee.” Said Jason, glancing up from his phone and then putting it away.

“Thanks.” Evelyn said to both of them. She took the coffee and then the card.

“If there’s ever a problem you can’t fix, give me a call.”

“Sure.”

____________________________________

They were arriving at the gala as a family, all packed in the back of the Lincoln and Alfred driving. Bruce was adjusting Jason’s tie last minute, but Jason kept un-adjusting it when Bruce wasn’t looking.

“You’re just bringing us because you didn’t want to have to bring a date.” Jason shot at Bruce.

“You get only one of those tonight.” Bruce said. In the seat beside Jason, Evelyn was paralyzed and attempting to get her limbs moving again without anyone noticing. How was this different from being deep undercover? Well, there were consequences to her actions that she couldn’t run away from. This costume was one she couldn’t take off and pretend didn’t exist when she was done with it. What she did, what she said, would reflect on Bruce and an entire, rather conspicuous family name. The stakes had never been higher. If she was staring down fifty stories with nothing but a jumpline and the night breeze between her and the sidewalk her nerves would be made of steel, but tonight they were piano wire tight.

The Lincoln came to a halt and Alfred came around to open the door and there came pops from every direction, sequins of light bursting in her vision as Alfred helped her out of the car. Jason followed and then came Bruce, his arms up and greeting the photographers with enthusiasm. Bruce played to the camera but Jason kept it low key, offering Evelyn his arm. She took it and melted into his side, playing it as cool as she could. Her worst nightmare was to be the center of attention and here she was, a vision in midnight blue silk, her hair piled elegantly at the nape of her neck with sprays of dried blue grasses and small blue roses inserted artfully into it. Jason could probably feel the pulse pounding in her hand, leaning just a bit and speaking low out of the side of his mouth.

“Just be...deliberate. People will eat that shit up. Leave the performance to Bruce and he’ll be the best distraction you can hope for.”

With Jason’s help, she eased up the carpet, stopping for a moment here to give a cow’s large and sober eyes to a photographer, and there for a moment for another before Bruce guided them inside the event.

  
_____________________________________

Jason was right. People loved Bruce. He was the heart and soul of the party and the perfect distraction. What attention was left to put on her was mostly limited to silent stares when they thought she wasn’t looking. She stuck close to Jason, which seemed to be discouraging people from approaching her. She thought she just might get through the entire party without being asked to dance until she heard a familiar voice.

“How’d she ride after I fixed her up?”

Evelyn turned around and didn’t recognize him at first. He was clean shaven, but it was unmistakably the same handsome mechanic who had fixed her flat.

“Like the dream she is. I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“I could say the same to you.” He said, looking her up and down. “You clean up nice.”

“I could say the same to you.” She said. He took a sip of his champagne and seeing her without a drink he nabbed one from the closest passing waiter and plied her with it. She had no intention of drinking it but it was a good prop and she took it.

“So, icebreakers, where are you from?” He asked. Free hand tucked under the elbow of the arm that held her glass, she shrugged. It was the languid motion of a leopard, settling into the personality she had crafted for him.

“Here and there.”

“Oh, you’re the woman of mystery, huh?”

She smiled, showing perhaps too many teeth.

“Who, me? I’m nobody.”

“Well, nobody, I’m nobody too. Maybe we could talk about it sometime.” He said, a crooked smile on his own face. He was a tall man but the way Jason stalked up to him out of the crowd made him step back a little.

“You’re a womanizer, Roy Harper, and you’re talking to _my_ teenage sister.” Jason said, getting aggressively close to him.

“Look, I wasn’t-” Roy started, but Jason cut him off.

“Yeah, don’t think I didn’t ask about you. I thought your name was familiar.” He said. Out of the corner of her eye Evelyn could see that he was attracting attention and she put her hand on his arm, trying to get him to shut up. “Give me that, you’re not old enough to drink, oh my god, Evelyn-” He’d spotted her glass of champagne and transferred it from her hand to a passing waiter’s tray. “I told you to leave this shit to Bruce.” This was all horribly not according to plan and she bristled wildly the more Jason attempted to parent her.

“Speaking of, why aren’t you babysitting _him_?” Evelyn said, in a perfectly reasonable tone except it was half snarled under her breath as to not attract more attention.

“Not my job. You, on the other hand, have to be good or I’ll lose my mind.”

“Have to?” She muttered. When Jason’s back was turned, she pulled a “can you believe this guy?” face at Roy and straightened it out immediately as Jason turned back. Roy smiled. “Ok, whatever. Just stop. You can have him.” She said, waving Jason off and abandoning the area in search of air. She was unreasonably irritated that Jason had blown her cover, but it was time she did what she did best and bail on the situation before it got any worse. They could have a fight about it later. She picked her way through the party and found the dessert table, distracting herself with a treat. It was heavenly and she was about to have another when she spotted Jason and therefore excused herself to the back of the ballroom, melting into the crowd and retiring where she thought she might safely spend the rest of the party without attracting any more attention.

However, still looking around for Jason, or possibly Bruce, Roy sauntered back into her periphery, leaning against the same pillar she was draped against and gesturing with the hand that held his champagne glass.

“I’ve been threatened up and down state lines.” He said, watching the party go by.

“Oh?”

“Warned, cautioned....Positively admonished not to come near you.”

“Have you now?” She quipped.

“So you’re not old enough to drink.”

“I admit.” She said, graciously, knowing it would do no good to lie about that now.

“Are you old enough to vote?” He asked.

“I have an ID that will allow me to vote, yes.” She said, weaseling her way through the question. He visibly relaxed and she realized that she had no reason to and yet here she was, drawing him in. He was good looking, but that had never been a singular qualifier for Evelyn’s attentions. He leaned closer and she could smell his cologne and it was familiar. Is that what she wanted with him? Was he a convenient way to both rebel and satisfy her own catlike need for play? He was looking at her as if his train of thought might be similar. Good luck she thought.

“You really are mysterious, aren’t you?”

“Couldn’t say, I know everything about me.” She said.

“No, I mean, you’re all anyone’s talking about. In print and at this party. I didn’t know it was you until Jason came along, but.... The newest Wayne addition.” He said, waving his hands at this last part as if announcing her. “But beyond your name, it’s all a blur.”

“How do you know Jason?” She asked, catching this.

“Eh, our daddies are golf buddies.” He said, conspiratorially, “Everyone knows everyone here.” She realized that in this, she’d shown her hand as unpracticed in this social sphere, and tried distraction as a cover.

“Well, take me out sometime, I’ll tell you whatever you want to hear.” She said, smiling. And meant it. She would tell him a very well constructed lie, and in great detail too. She’d tell him all about this person she’d slipped into and where they were supposedly like. Maybe she’d believe it too.

“I was getting there, but I’ll take you up on that.”

“It’s a date.”


	17. Meet Cute

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: Hey, hey everybody, do you like, remember that for a while with the Outsiders Arsenal doesn't like, WEAR A MASK???

“Goddamn it, are you kidding me?” Agent muttered as she hurriedly adjusted her gloves and mask. She’d had to change in an alley out of her date clothes and into Agent’s costume on the fly. It was going to make her late, but there had been a call on the police radio less than a mile away and not the kind of scuffle that she thought she’d leave to the boys in blue. She arrived at the bank by air, swinging onto the roof ledge of an office building and stopping there to gauge her approach. Police radio had said there was a lookout with an automatic on the roof. Pulling a gadget from her belt, she took aim and chucked it. It landed on the edge of the roof she’d been going for and she clicked the control on in her mask. The world went infrared, the bodies of each and every person in the building pulsing hot through the cold stone walls. Their man on the roof was down, slumped behind a wall.

Someone else was here. Agent’s boots landed on the roof and a moment later she was checking the pulse on the man slumped on the concrete. He was nursing a bruise the size of Manhattan and his hands had been zip tied together. The roof door was locked, but she found the grate of an air vent conveniently unscrewed and discarded and wriggled into it with a spirit of adventure.

It occurred to her that the someone who was already there could be Batman, but he didn’t work daylight hours and it would be a lot louder in the building if he’d shown up. That was fine, she wasn’t entirely ready to meet the caped crusader, not when she had a date in five and was still wearing lipstick. Her infrared gave her a heads up when she was about to come out over the main floor because there they were, the men with guns, and she stopped before she became visible in the entrance of the duct. Huddled there with the air conditioning whirring in her ears, she mapped her approach. She hated hostage situations, they were cramped quarters and left her with so little wiggle room. A team would have been nice right now, but she didn’t have the convenience of the titans at hand and would have to wing it. Pulling a stretchy length of rubber with a small cup in the middle out of one of her utility pockets, she loaded it with a ball bearing and took careful aim.

“Heeere’s Johnny...” She murmured, and released it. There was a yelp below and a gun fell to the floor.

“What the fuck are you doing, pick that up you fucking id-” there came the berating voice of the leader.

“I don’t like this, man. What if its Batman??”

“You’d fucking know if it was Batman-”

There came another yelp as he bent down to retrieve his gun and was hit in the ass with another ball bearing. They were starting to get the idea of where she was. Time to move. She wriggled out of the air vent and let loose a jump line. The bank was old and very grand and had plenty of swinging space. She was used to operating on a team basis and playing ghost, but she normally operated in the dark and it was a lot harder to hide in broad daylight.

“There, get her!”

She couldn’t change direction midair- quite possibly she would heal from a bullet wound but that didn’t change the fact that it was going to hurt very much-

It was in a blur of red that her silent companion decided to speak up, launching himself from a beam at the opposite side of the room and scooping her neatly out of the way. Cradled in his arms like a damsel, they arced to safety high above the shooters and found their feet on another beam high above the scene. With the infrared on she couldn’t make out the details of his face, but there was no time for introductions, thanks, or insult bandied; red and black, both figures dove apart as a hail of bullets split them in two. As she rolled, Agent tossed a handful of pellets that exploded in smoke as they hit the ground. It would have been shuriken, but there were people in the way and she wasn’t going to have collateral damage. Moving like a ferret through the smoke, she let her infrared guide her and take out the head with his own gun. As smoke spread through the room, engulfing the gunmen and their hostages, the hostages fled, released so guns could be handled with both hands.

Smoke and hostages burst from the front doors, rats running in every direction as Agent took them down one by one. There were bursts of light as gunfire erupted and then died as suddenly as someone shouted direction to the panicked gunmen.

“Hold your fire, you’ll hit one of us!”

“Yeah, don’t shoot people you piece of shit.” Agent popped up next to the speaker and elbowed him viciously in the face and he went down, clutching his nose. She kicked his gun away. A blur of oranges and reds came from her left and she dug her fingers into it and wrenched it to the side until groping with her infrared, it clicked off and she found herself holding not a criminal but the same figure that had saved her an excuse for a shotgun wound. He was tall and good looking, and incredibly, inexplicably, amazingly, not wearing a mask.

For a second she stared into Roy Harper’s bold fucking face and gaped, but instinct told her to dummy up, lest she give herself away with too much consideration. Releasing him, she laughed, giddy with disbelief and the sheer incredulity of the situation. Oh no. Their date. She had to get to the cafe before him.

“Thanks. Can you handle the officials? I’ve got a.... hot date.”

“Sure, I’ll just, say thanks to the man who saved my life real quick. Wait, no, I did that for you.” He said, playfully sarcastic.

“I’ll owe you one, Stranger.”

He could handle a few more zip ties. The police would be swarming the building in minutes anyway, it was time to excuse herself.

____________________________________________

Sweating and back in her civilian clothes, Evelyn was twenty minutes late for her date. Roy, however, was later. He jogged up looking flushed and apologetic, looking as if he’d jogged there. In her head she calculated how many blocks it was from the bank and was grateful that she’d had Viper to get her here first.

She had to re-evaluate this situation on its most basic level. Roy Harper was not a civilian, and therefore could not be a plaything. He was now, in her eyes, a real live person, and that made everything a little more complicated.

“Hey, sorry I’m late.” He said. He was there, blocking the sun, and she straightened the hem of her little spring dress nervously. It was just then that she realized that she might smell like smoke and he might have taken her expression as one of displeasure at his lateness. “Can I make it up to you?” He asked, earnestly. She checked her phone for the time and considered for a second exactly how he could make her happy. _Go back to being a boring, uncomplicated civilian_. She smiled, a little unsure.

“It’s getting late. Buy me dinner and we’ll call it even.” She said. He laughed.

“I guess I owe you that.” He said, offering his hand to get her out of her chair. She swung on her little leather jacket, putting her phone in the pocket and taking his arm as if comfortable with the idea of him already.

“Take it as an opportunity to tell me everything about yourself. Spare no detail, no embarrassing story, no epic misadventure.” She said.


	18. It's a Muddy Situation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: A steel I-beam weighs approximately 8.9 tons. This is relevant. Evelyn wonders exactly how much she should lie and Agent says "all of it"

They ended up walking to Chinatown and getting take out noodles and eating them as they walked. Of course she had appropriately crafted lies to tell, but told fewer of them than she had expected. The more they talked the more human he seemed to her and she opened up accordingly. He’d been a latecomer to Bruce’s world, the same as she had been, only stepping into wealth and glamour as a teenager. He told her all about being raised on the reservation and about his band in high school, Great Frog. He was footloose and fancy free, but his adoptive father wanted him to settle down somewhere and he couldn’t stand where he was at or the people he was with, so he’d come to Gotham

They ended up staying out later than they’d intended, finishing their noodles on a bench overlooking the sunset on the river. Cross legged on the bench with her skirt pulled between her legs, Evelyn gestured animatedly with her chopsticks as she talked. She fed him half fictions about her past, but was honest with about she felt coming into life and the public eye late like this and how sometimes she was unsure of what to say to Bruce because she’d never had a dad and was basically feeling her way blindly through their relationship. When they finally threw away their noodle containers the streetlights were starting to come on.

“I’ve got to get home. I think Bruce will wonder if I’m out late.” She said, stretching. It was getting warmer but she was glad that she’d brought the jacket.

“Don’t rock the boat.” He warned. She laughed. She’d been on the fence at first; thought of him as an experiment, a game that she was learning to play, but tonight had made up her mind that she liked him.

She wheeled Viper into the garage an hour later and closed the door behind her, trying not to turn on any unnecessary lights, but when she got to the kitchen, Bruce was there.

“Hey. You missed dinner.” He said when he saw her. Normally she and Jason ate together but Bruce’s attendance was more spotty.

“Sorry, I didn’t think you’d mind.”

“School was out at three, where have you been?”

She had to be careful with her answer- so far he hadn’t pried too much, but she also hadn’t stayed out in the city alone so late, and she happened to have been with someone that Jason didn’t approve of; who knew if Bruce would have the same opinion. She shrugged off her jacket and draped it on the kitchen island, quickly formulating a lie.

“I went to see a movie and dinner with Barbra. I forgot to text.”

The moment it was out of her mouth she felt something squirm within her. Was this a worm of guilt? She felt guilty for lying? Her? She squashed it instantly. He may be her father, but she was having no such thing as guilt for keeping some parts of her life private. She didn’t tell him about Agent, and she had no qualms about that. In fact it was safest for everyone and she couldn’t imagine stopping. She was Agent and Agent was her, the two so intermixed and muddied that it was impossible to separate them without removing parts of one or the other.

________________________________________

Evelyn was a tight lipped person but Barbra had started to wear on her in a silent kind of way. She often imitated Barabra in situations that she could not figure out immediately on her own, an easy social in that she would not have otherwise had a resource for. Barbra was.... was so normal, so steadfast, so easy going, so constantly present that a few months into her stay in Gotham she had begun to consider her a friend regardless of her disconnection from the secret parts of Evelyn’s life. Barbra was her connection to the everyday, a grounding presence that encouraged her to reach into parts of every day life that she normally would be hesitant to.

They were discussing one of these parts, the possibility of signing up for the varsity gymnastics team, when Evelyn found her two lives intersecting in the most unexpected of ways. One moment they were in the library by the big bay windows, looking for reference for a social studies project and discussing the team and the next a shadow had fallen over them. As the sun went out the hair on the back of Evelyn’s neck rose and Barbra looked up first, her mouth opening in a soundless “O”. They reacted at the same time as the windows shattered, each grabbing on to the other and running for the exit across the library. The windows blew in with a deafening explosion of glass and metal, pursuing their quick footsteps. '

The rest of the library was quick to follow, the high ceilings closest to the window crumbling first. Evelyn’s powers activated instinctively,eyes lighting black and hands coming up above her head to catch the steel construction beam that, unattached now, swung down in front of the girl’s path. Evelyn’s muscles bunched and strained under the sudden weight but she held.

As what had caused the destruction moved on, the dust in the library settled. She had tested her powers to some degree, but had never touched the upper limits of her strength and now she found herself toeing that edge. Barbra was silent and unmoving on the floor, her temple bruised and her form covered in drywall dust. Heaving the weight over her head, Evelyn slowly lowered it and once it was close enough to the floor a safe distance away from Barbra’s unconscious figure, let her end drop with an echoing noise that seemed to fill the entire library. It took a moment for her eyes to fade back to brown. It was slightly more difficult to pick Barbra up off the floor and into a fireman’s carry across her back, but she managed, staggering out of the empty library and into the main body of the school. The fire alarm was going off, students rushing for the parking lot. Evelyn didn’t know what to do with Barbra, shouting and finding herself drown out by the alarm and the screams of similarly desperate students.

“I need the nurse! Someone!”

In the parking lot it was chaos, but the picture of what had happened was a bit more clear in the streaks of tar splattered across the destroyed parts of the school and the retreating figure, three stories tall. Evelyn gaped at it for a moment with Barbra still on her back, trying to process what could have brought a 45 foot human form made of what seemed like globs of tar and mud to life. Barbra had to go somewhere. Evelyn had to go after it. Barbra stirred and moaned. Smoke rose from the school behind them.

“Don’t worry, Babs, I got you.” She said. Under the screams and the smoke, she found their homeroom teacher, leaving Barbra draped on a bench with a rising lump on her forehead. The danger was moving away into the city, she was going to be safe. But Evelyn had to move. Luckily she had taken Viper to school and in the confusion she mounted it and zipped out of the parking lot in pursuit, taking less than a second to dig an extra domino mask from the compartment and put it on. She was still wearing her uniform but semi-anonymity would have to do. She was heading in the opposite direction of the crowd, clearing it quickly and speeding off into the city after the tar monster. It wasn’t hard to follow the screams and the smoke, the sound of shattering glass and honking cars. Once she caught up with its progress she stopped and looked up. She felt fear then, staring up at this monstrous thing that towered stories above her; a sort of helpless wonderment of how she would stop this inevitability from happening and if she could, would she ultimately be destroying something sentient?

It didn’t matter. She needed help, and the Titans were a long way away. She patched in to her radio transmission and put out a call across all open frequencies, hoping that another cape might catch the signal and latch on. This was Gotham, there were plenty of them to work with and if there ever was a time when she needed a team, it was now.

“Emergency call: we have a big something headed north through the city and it’s not stopping. I need help subduing this thing. This call is for anyone on this frequency, I repeat it’s heading north through the city, currently one in pursuit.”The longer it stayed in the city the more destruction it was causing. She revved Viper and caught up with it again, swerving onto the sidewalk and getting ahead of it. She released a jump line into the air and the hook went into the head of the creature, causing it to shriek and roar. It was absorbed into the head and held as she swung around, trying to use the jump line as a lasso and direct its movement. Under the pressure of the pull it swung drunkenly into a high rise, shattering more glass. Agent now shouted into the radio, a little more desperate as she tried to figure out what could stop this thing or slow it down. “Again, emergency call, this is Agent, currently in pursuit and in need of assistance! Son of a fu- WHOA-” She shouted, her exclamation cut short as she was yanked up and out of her seat, leaving Viper behind as she sailed through the air as the sludge thrashed against the restraining line. Activating her core muscles she righted herself in the air, feet coming into the contact with the side of a building and running across it for a moment before she was whipped forward again and her feet lost contact with the surface again. Grasped tightly to the jump line she rode it through the air, thinking fast. She knew from the way it was behaving that she didn’t want to touch it or she might find herself sucked in, so she did her best to keep in contact with the surrounding buildings and occasionally the ground when she wasn’t helplessly being whipped through the air. Making a dumb decision, she hooked another jump line into her belt and let it fly, the hook wrapping around a lamp post and hooking there. She’d been on the ground for a moment but now was yanked violently back into the air, suspended between both lines. The monster halted, jerked backwards.

Her power didn’t activate, wouldn’t activate, leaving her holding on to the jump line attached to the monster with one arm and steadying herself by the second jump line attached to her waist. Her bicep strained, her human strength wavering for a moment before she felt it happen- something popped in her left arm and she screamed, releasing the jump line that was attached to the pole and flying towards the monster in response to helpless physics. She hit it full force and stuck, gasping in a breath and closing her eyes tightly as she was absorbed into the body of the creature. It was almost impossible to move, suffocating and hot inside the skin of the monster. There was no other recourse. She couldn’t get away from it, but she didn’t have to, struggling to reach a device on her belt that was supposed to be thrown far way from the user. She activated it and waited for her breath to run out.

The explosion rocked the city block and threw her out of the mass and into the air, gasping in air and having it knocked from her body a moment later as her back hit a telephone pole. The one reliable thing about her powers had pulled through, leaving her untouched and the tar monster a wrecked, warbling mess with a good story sized chunk blasted into its side. It writhed, trying to reform and finding that it had lost some of its mass. Well that meant something. She could continue to blast away at it, or....Her gunk covered radio crackled. Backup had arrived and was helping her to her feet.

“Easy on that arm.” She said to Roy as he helped her up. “What took you so long?”

“What happened to my quiet thursday afternoon?” He quipped back. “What do you know?” He asked, without waiting for her to answer the first.

“We need to blast it, that seems to be working.” She said, shaking her arm out and trying to get it to work again. It wasn’t quite there. The monster had stopped shrieking and had formed a less human shaped mass, slopping towards them menacingly

“Gotcha.” He said, drawing an arrow with an explosive tip and shooting it into the beast’s face. It buried itself deep into the mass and exploded with a POP, causing a large bubble that burst with an explosion of foul smoke. It shrieked and slowed, trying to reform as it chased them.

“It’s got to be bigger!” Agent shouted, taking off running as Roy did.

“We can’t, it’s too risky.” He shouted back, pulling another arrow and aiming behind them. Her arm was sore but starting to work again. She didn’t want to listen to Roy, but he was right, they needed to draw it away from civilians. It was chasing them already, so all they needed to do was get it to go a little faster.

“Keep making it mad then, and follow me!” She shouted. Not once did she think to fear for Roy’s safety, the same way that she ignored her own fear in the heat of battle, limbs and brain pumping with adrenaline. They were on the edge of the city now, it would be easy to lead it where she was going, as long as they could make it keep chasing them. Seeing an opportunity now that Viper was out of the question, she skidded to a halt and pulled out her knife, glancing behind her at the approaching mass before kneeling beside a vespa and prying open a compartment on the stem of the bike.

“What are you doing?” Roy shouted, releasing another exploding arrow to keep the mass from advancing.

“Trust me!” Agent said, sorting through wires and stripping two before touching them together. She was rewarded with a spark and a revving of the engine. She hopped on. “Get on!” She shouted and Roy took no time getting onto the back and they were off, taking a sharp turn through the city and leading the tar man out of the tall buildings. The speedometer only went up to 60, and the needle was having a hard time reaching that. On the back of the vespa, Roy expressed his doubts over this plan.

“Can you make this thing go any faster??” Roy asked, over the wind. Agent was sweating a bit, but so far they were keeping an okay distance from their attacker.

“It’s faster than you can run!” She quipped, leaving it at that as she revved it as fast as it would go. Soon they were out of the city and on flatlands and they could see ahead of them what she was aiming for and Roy again expressed doubts. The mass was gaining on them.

“You can’t be serious!” He exclaimed as they raced towards the power plant.

“I’m serious!” She replied. She could only hope that her strength would be there when she needed it, but she was working on pure adrenaline and that kept her moving forward regardless of the recklessness of her plan. She didn’t know how far her protection would stretch but she had no time to consider anything else. Skidding to a halt, amidst the power converters, she leaped from the vespa and sprinted for her goal. “Keep it distracted!”

“Oh, sure, yeah, just go ahead and leave me alone with it, that’s fine!” He shouted after her, drawing a double arrow load this time. She heard the approaching screech of the monster and hoped that she wasn’t about to fry herself. Roy held it off as she scrambled to find what she was looking for. The largest power line was as thick as her entire body and as she wrapped her arms around it, she begged it silently to be nice- but also, not nice. Eyes flashing black, the tendons on her neck stood out as she twisted and suddenly it gave, layers upon layers of wire and metal cord ripping in half to expose a crackling live wire.

“Hey, over here, you big sack of fuck!” She yelled, then to Roy, “Hey-” she started, but she couldn’t let him know that she knew his name- “you, drive it closer so I can reach!” Roy circled, bombing the ground at its base to drive it towards her. Holding the live wire with both arms and trying not to get too close to the chirping end, she watched as lighting flew- “Yeah, you! Comere, you fucking piece of shit!”- it connected and suddenly the air was alive with the sound of a thousand songbirds as the mass of goo crackled and sang with electricity, having run itself into the live end of the power cord she held. As it connected, they were both blown backwards in a spray of electricity and black goo as it reached the center mass and blew.

_________________________________________

The power plant had shorted in the explosion and now the whole place was a wreck, Agent stumbling out of the smoke coughing but unharmed other than a few bruises that she knew would be gone in a matter of minutes. She found Arsenal dazed and resting against a wall with his quiver and bow next to him on the ground.

“I think we’re good now.” He said when he saw her.

“Probably?” She answered, sliding down the wall to sit next to him. He held out a gloved hand for her to shake.

“Arsenal. I heard your call on the radio, Agent.”

“Thanks for showing up, Arsenal.” She said. So this was Roy Harper in his off time. She realized that she was wearing her uniform still with its Gotham D. Prep patch on the jacket, but she was safe because it was now almost unrecognizable after her passage into and through the monster. She was covered in a drying black goo from head to toe.

“I don’t suppose you know of any good dry clean places nearby.” She grumbled. This wasn’t her only uniform, but she hadn’t paid for it and felt guilty at its ruining.

“Try 4rth and West. We should probably jet before the fire department shows up.” He said.

“Fair.” She said, not moving. She wanted to take a second. He didn’t move either, listening to the fire truck sirens approach. It wasn’t a question of whether Roy Harper was an ally, that was a for sure thing- but she didn’t know how to approach him knowing this about him when she was as secretive as they came. She missed the Titans and the camaraderie of having a team or at least someone to work with, but she didn’t know how to navigate these waters so she sat there in the silence of his company and simply wondered.


	19. The Connundrum of Distance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: Evelyn might be a performative sociopath, but she still has boy problems

They could hear sirens by the time Agent had made up her mind. She got up and offered one hand for Roy to get up.

“We should get going.” She said, reaching for her mask. She helped him up and just as he looked into her face she removed it.

“Evel-....?” He started, blinking in confusion.

“I thought it only seemed fair.” She said, putting it back on now that he’d seen her face.

“That’s pretty heavy.” He said, in a considering voice. “Evelyn Wayne, superhero.”

“Evelyn Wayne, needs a shower” She answered, smiling. She was covered head to toe in the remnants of the tarry goo. How she was going to get it out of her hair, she had no idea. Peanut butter, maybe.

“Good luck with that.” He said. “Hey, you know, I forgot to say something the other night.” She turned back for a moment to look at him over her shoulder and found his hand cupping her chin and his lips pressed against hers. It was a surprise but she took it in stride, closing her eyes to savor it for a moment. It was far from a familiar sensation, but oh- so surprisingly pleasant to have someone so close, breathing in that same engine grease and metal smell that had put her at ease at their first meeting. When they parted, he shrugged one shoulder apologetically. “I have a thing for women who could kick my ass” He said.

“If you want to try that sometime I’m down, but I have to share that you’re a dumbfuck for not wearing a mask.” She said, without venom. He shouldered his quiver as they walked back to the vespa. The sirens seemed far too close, they had to get going.

“So you feel like getting some more noodles, or...?” He asked. Now that the fight was over it was damage control time and she had very limited time before the disaster protocol for the school would find her missing from the student body.

“I’ve got to get back before someone assumes I’m dead, you coming?” She asked, mounting the vespa.

“On that thing? I can walk faster.” He said.

“Suit yourself.” She said, bending to hotwire it again and getting rewarded with a rev of the engine. “Call me.” She added, over her shoulder. As she buzzed out of the gate and down the road, she touched two fingers of one hand to her lips and a cautious smile came across them. Roy Harper, superhero. Roy Harper, a good first date and a nice first kiss. He was in her world and she was in his- he understood her in a way that Jason, or Barbra, or Bruce never could. In a way that only so far the Titans had understood her, and that was a rare and precious thing.

____________________

D Prep was a disaster. Evelyn managed to find Viper and return within an hour, slipping back into the student body without anyone noticing. She found Barbra on the same bench she’d left her on with a cold pack on her temple. When she saw her, Barbra stood up and rushed her into a panicked hug.

“What the hell happened to you??” She asked when she saw the state of her uniform. Evelyn realized that she didn’t have an excuse, and she was blanking on one so she hugged her instead, pretending to babble as if she were scared.

“I was so worried about you, I lost you in the library and I thought for sure you were dead, or something, and Mr. Hayes said you got hit on the head- what was that thing??” This seemed to be a satisfactory response because Barbra didn’t push any further. It looked like the damage to the school was mostly relegated to the library and the outdoor campus, but the school might get shut down for a while while they attempted to piece together the disaster. Evelyn didn’t care either way, she just wanted to go home and shower- but there was still an obstacle to get through.

“What do you mean you can’t find my daughter?? She’s enrolled, she went to class this morning-” It was Bruce, his voice cutting through the commotion of the crowd with a commotion of his own. He spotted her and Barbra and rushed over, brushing the principal who he’d been talking to to the side. For a moment Evelyn couldn’t process what he was doing there and then it struck her that he was worried about her. That’s what fathers did, supposedly, and here it was in action. His face was tight and didn’t get better when he saw the state she was in, pulling her into a tight hug despite the suit he was wearing. “I came as soon as I heard. Are you okay??” He asked. A little stunned, she sorted through responses and landed on what felt like the best idea- distraction, tightening her sinuses to make her eyes water and bursting into fake tears.

She considered this situation for a moment as the tears began to slowly flow, and found herself questioning her own methods. She had always played strangers for fools in order to survive, but lying so boldly and emotionally to Bruce felt, again, wrong. But what was she going to do, tell him the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth? And find herself in jail, or what did parents do again when they were upset-? Grounded. Grounded for life, every secret she loved taken away from her and her locked away in the house until she was eighteen. She’d go crazy.

So for her own sake, she cried into Bruce’s jacket.

_____________________________

Bruce didn’t ask too many questions in the face of her tears, driving her and Jason home that afternoon. Alfred had taken her uniform away to be cleaned as soon as she’d gotten it off and she locked herself in her bathroom, combing a sample of the gunk from her hair and putting it aside for after her shower. It had dried to a dustlike consistency on her skin, but she wouldn’t know its real composition until she sent the sample to Robin. After her shower she sat crosslegged on the bed in her towel with her old Titans communicator. Flipping it open, she fiddled with it a second before the screen blipped up, showing Robin’s face.

“Hey! Long time no see, how are you settling in?” He asked. “Guys, it’s Agent!” He shouted over his shoulder and suddenly he was battling for screen space with four other heads.

“It’s...new for me.” She said.

“Have you met Batman yet??” Beastboy asked, so excited that his voice broke on the hero’s name.

“No, not yet. Though I did make a new friend today who needs analyzing. Robin, can you run a chemical trace on this and tell me what’s going on with it?” She asked. Pressing the tiniest of buttons, a slide shaped compartment opened in the body of the communicator and she sprinkled the flakes of mud she’d combed from her hair onto the surface for it to analyze. A moment later she saw the camera moving as Robin went to plug his communicator into the bigger computer. For a moment it was just them.

“I saw some of the news footage of this about an hour ago. It looked like a clayface.” Before she could ask what a clayface was, he added “Was that Speedy with you?”

“Speedy? I dunno, he called himself Arsenal.”

“It looks like him. He used to run with us, a few years back.”

“Oh yeah?”

“We miss you here.” He hesitated, then ran a hand through his hair as if embarrassed by the admission. “Ok, I miss you.”

She was stuck for a moment not knowing what to say. On a surface level she supposed it made sense that she hadn’t been gone long, but she was so used to being done with a part of her life as soon as she left it. It was understood that there were no strings attached when you fled in the night, but she’d left the Titans still friends. Still something. And here Robin was, with the same feelings she’d left him with. She wasn’t cold to him- she felt the same way, but if she wanted someone she wanted them to be right there where she could touch them. In effect, she’d made the choice of one family over another. Her father for Robin. Jason and Babs for the Titans. It had seemed like a natural choice when she’d left but in the moment that she realized this choice for the first time, she regretted it. But it had already been made.

“I miss you guys too.” She said. There was a short pause. “Is the computer done?” She asked, inwardly cringing as she brushed away from this conversation.

“Oh. Yeah-” He read off a list of the chemical traces found in the composition. “-that looks like regular mud, with a trace of industrial waste.”

“Oh gross, that was all over me.” She said, for a moment distracted by how truly disgusting that was.

“I hope you took a really good shower, but your metahuman metabolism should keep you from getting sick.” He said, predicting her worry.

“Thanks, Robin. Listen, I’ve got to go.” She said. They said their short goodbyes and she snapped the communicator shut, flopping back onto her bed to lay there and let her stomach squirm.


	20. New in Town 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: Jason "fight on sight" Todd and Evelyn "meet me in the pit" Wayne. Alfred sees some action.

Evelyn found herself unable to sleep that night and so she walked Viper down to the gate and rumbled off into the night, leaving it ajar. She parked her with the anti-burglar feature running and took to the roof tops with her jump line. Her arm had completely healed from the muscle tear and held her weight just fine. She had considered what this healing ability meant for some time now but couldn’t bring herself to any sort of conclusion. It came across her mind sometimes to wonder if she could die or if she was one of those cases where they healed even age. Only time would tell, but the way she was thinking about it now was that it could be a problem later on down the line. It would mean only a continuation of what her life had been previously, moving frequently, an inability to get close to people.

It was her conversation with Robin, the way he’d reached out and she’d slid away. When she’d left she’d tried to shelve those feelings for him the way she’d fridged her feelings for others she’d left behind. She wanted to move on, wanted to forget about those feelings, but she was confronted with them in a way she didn’t expect when she went out into the night. All was quiet, but a sweep of her surroundings revealed a flash of color that she hadn’t predicted.

“Is that....” She murmured. No. He had been in California not hours ago, it was impossible for Robin to be here. So who was that? Someone was wearing his colors, a dark haired someone who could easily pass for him. Pocketing her little binoculars, she let loose a jump line and crossed the street, following with light footsteps. It wasn’t until the courthouse roof that she lost him in the dark, tiptoeing behind air conditioning units and ventilation pipes trying to find him again. She was about to activate the thermal tracker in her mask when a figure stepped out in front of her and tried to body check her into the nearest AC unit.

“Think its funny to follow someone who carries knives?” He said, aiming a curved blade at her neck. It was a batarang, just like Robin used, but this stranger was taller and the voice was wrong.

“You brought a knife to a knife fight, congratulations.” She growled. Wriggling, she twisted her knee into his crotch and was rewarded with a huff of pain. She checked him with her elbow and he bowled over and she was on top this time, gripping his collar. “Who are you?” She demanded.

“Ok it looks like you’re new here but shouldn’t it be kind of obvious?” He said, then he bit her. Reflexively she yanked her hand back, releasing him and he rolled away from her and into open space. She followed defensively, hands and knife up should he come after her again with that batarang.

“I know Robin, you’re not Robin. So WHO ARE YOU??” She emphasized this last part with a slash to the air with her knife. The imposter swayed back to avoid the aggressive swipe, but stood his ground. If he’d chosen to creep up behind her she would have attacked at the slightest sound, but when the hulking figure materialized it was behind Robin, who did not seem to mind being snuck up on, as long as it wasn’t by her.

It was Batman.

“Is there a problem here?” He asked, his voice from the depths of a gravel pit.

“This asshole-”

“Language, Robin.”

“-She attacked me!”

Batman was no threat to her as she was, she sheathed her knife, causing Robin to relax.

“I assumed you were some dumbfuck in a mask pretending to be Robin.” She said. Batman did not correct her.

“I AM Robin.” Robin insisted.

“Robin’s in california, I just talked to him.” She said.

“You’re Agent. Robin said you were coming.” Said Batman, dispassionately. Though, she didn’t think she wanted to see him when he was riled up about something. She’d grown a few inches, but he had to be well over six foot and he dwarfed both her and Robin easily.

“Yeah, that’s right.” She said, eyeing this Robin suspiciously.

“Welcome to Gotham.” Batman said. “Any friend of Robin’s is a friend of ours.” Robin grumbled something under his breath, obviously not sharing the sentiment. “Leave it, Robin.” Batman added, before sweeping his cape back into the darkness. From the shadows, he called for his charge. “Robin.” With one last snarl in her direction, Robin put away his batarang and melted backwards into the darkness after his mentor. Agent wondered what that was like for a second, but her most recent mentor figure had also tried to drown her as punishment and so she put that thought away almost as quickly as it had come.

________________________

It was the weekend and Evelyn had finished her homework on friday night so there was nothing for her to do during daylight hours except for wait for the dark to come. And as the seasons changed it took longer and longer for that to happen. She and Jason were draped over the couch in various artful ways, Evelyn watching an endless string of commercials upside down.

“I’m bored.”

“That’s because you’re boring.”

“I’m bored because there’s nothing on.” Tv in free time was a new thing and Evelyn found herself simultaneously fascinated with reality tv and the way they seemed to hate each other and hating the aggressive vapidness.

“You could always leave the house and enjoy the grounds now that it’s spring.” Suggested Alfred. He’d come in in time to hear the complaint, as neatly pressed as ever. Evelyn and Jason looked at each other, weighing this comment. She had a hard time imagining Alfred at any kind of sport. Perhaps a gentlemanly game of cricket, still wearing his jacket.

“I guess.” Said Jason.

“It’s been years since I’ve seen one, but perhaps there’s a frisbee in the garden shed.” Suggested Alfred.

Frisbee? Evelyn clicked the TV off, considering it. She had started on the gymnastics team at school; movement for movement’s sake, but she’d never played any kind of competitive sports game for fun. Still there was nothing else to do and so she and Jason found themselves digging out that frisbee and playing with it on the back lawn. It was nice to stretch and be in the sun after what felt like one of the longest winters she’d ever sat through. Normally she’d travel south and winter somewhere warm, Mexico or Florida, but this year she’d been grounded to Gotham and had spent her time in the snow. It had melted and the robins had come out, brightly breasted and cheerful in the sun. She and Jason tossed the frisbee back and forth, finding that they had to back farther and farther away from each other to compensate for the breeze. She gently ribbed him across the distance, getting him more and more concentrated on trash talking her back that he didn’t notice that one of his throws was about to go wide. He tossed it and it soared high over Evelyn’s head. She leaped but it whizzed over her head and across the lawn, curving in the wind and coming to clatter onto the roof of the old greenhouse.

“Shit.” Said Jason.

“I’ll get it.” Said Evelyn, jogging for the greenhouse. She didn’t want to seem too eager and able so she pawed at the drain pipe that she could very easily scale. “Hold on, give me a boost?” She asked Jason. He linked his fingers together and held them out for her to step into, even lifting her with a little “hup”. She hopped up high enough to catch the gutter and swing herself up, legs kicking the air for a second as she hauled her upper half upwards and onto the tiled glass roof. She was in another growth spurt, and despite topping out at a hundred and twenty pounds now, she wasn’t used to betting on her new body weight and thus very gingerly began to crawl up the roof towards the frisbee.

“You see it?” Asked Jason on the ground.

“I see it, I’ve almost got it.” She said. Suddenly there was an ominous cracking and she yanked her hand away from the frisbee. Instinctively she went flat on her stomach to distribute the weight but it was too late- she heard Jason begin to shout her name but it was lost amongst the shattering of glass and the rushing of air. When she landed there was a burst of pain and she cried out as she landed on broken glass, her palms and side bursting suddenly with blood. Fingers curled awkwardly upwards away from the glass, she gingerly lifted herself up and checked carefully for broken bones. Jason had run for the greenhouse door at the first sound of cracking, bursting in the door and rushing to her.

“You’re okay. You’re okay, right?” He asked, trying to help her up and getting blood all over his hands. She looked at him with wide, frightened eyes. She was bleeding from a hundred different little cuts and her hands and flank had been sliced open where she landed. _I’m okay, I’m okay_ it wasn’t the pain that worried her, but the fact that she knew they’d be healed in a matter of minutes. Her heart pounded, causing blood to leak more and more steadily as she blood pressure went up.

“Help me inside, please.” She asked and he did so, kicking the back door to the kitchen open. Alfred was in there prepping dinner and when he saw them he froze for a second and then swiped everything he was working on down towards the end of the kitchen counter.

“Jason, get me the first aid kit. Evelyn, can you sit up here?” He said, taking charge of the situation and helping her hop up. He ripped off a wad of paper towels and wet them in the sink, mopping at her wounds and giving her another wad to hold between her bleeding palms. She sat there shaking, waiting for it to happen, and it did with the smallest of cuts first on her face and then the larger ones on her body. As he washed her cuts they disappeared, the injury washing away with the blood. It was the first time she felt cursed to be like this. She wasn’t used to begging, but in the face of this unnatural consequence she had to. If he told anyone it could cascade into facets of her life that she wasn’t ready to share- wouldn’t ever be ready to share.

“Please don’t tell Bruce.” She whispered. He didn’t answer, but he began to apply bandaids in places that there were no cuts. She was confused for a second until she realized that _he was covering for her, no questions asked_. Jason came back in with the first aid kit and fortunately the bigger cuts were still bleeding because he looked like he was going to hover.

“Jason, you need to leave.” Said Alfred.

“Wha-” He began to protest.

“Jason, leave.” Alfred said, firmly. Jason gave him a very angry look but when he left Evelyn’s shoulders sagged with relief. Taking the bloody wad of paper towels from her hands, he inspected the healing gashes and dabbed them with antiseptic, just for good measure. Then he wrapped them in a good layer of white bandages, taking care that she could still use her fingers to a degree. “These should be healed in about a week.” He said, looking into her eyes with meaning. She should not reveal her bare skin for at least a week. There was understanding in the depths of his eyes. “At least its warm enough that we won’t have to worry about snow getting into the greenhouse. I’ll call to get it repaired. No harm done.” He said, patting her gently on the shoulder. “Maybe stay inside and avoid athletics for a while.” He added, thoughtfully.

She nodded and hopped off the counter, where she stood for a moment in the kitchen considering this secret that the two of them now had. Cautiously, she put her arms around his ribcage and squeezed just a bit to relay her thanks. He let her, and then watched her leave the kitchen without another word.


	21. Truth and Consequences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: Jason is a troublemaker trying to keep a troublemaker from making trouble. Evelyn remembers, or not. NSFW content this chapter

“You know to avoid paparazzi or he’ll catch you, right?”

Evelyn had half turned at the sound of a footstep on the front stairs and Jason’s voice and there he was, wearing jeans and a big denim jacket. She had been about to go out the front door; Bruce wasn’t home and Alfred was puttering around somewhere she couldn’t find, so had thought it was safe to go out the front way to walk down the drive and catch her ride. He turned the corner to the lower stairs and slide down to the bottom on the bannister. He landed with a stomp in front of her as if landing a skateboard. “Where are we going?”

“We’re staying here, I’m going to a party.” She said. She was dressed in black jeans and a cropped tank top, it was easy to spot and therein had lied the weakness in her escape plan.

“I can see that, but if you’re not headed to the garage to get your motorcycle, you’re getting a ride. Babs doesn’t have a car yet, so the only other person you could be going to a party with is Roy Harper, and Roy Harper is bad news.” He said, and as he talked Evelyn’s brows knitted. What kind of teenager did that kind of detective work on the fly? “So I repeat.” He said brightly, “Where are we going?”

“If I tell you to fuck off are you going to tell Bruce?”

“Most definitely.”

She was well and caught, so she pointed her keys at him with a warning voice.

“If you tell Bruce I will strangle you in your sleep.” She said.

“But where do I sleep?” He asked.

“Good point.” She said. She knew she could easily find out, but he’d called her bluff. If she was going to strangle him he’d be awake.

“Yippee!” He said, pretending to clap. She elbowed him in the chest. He bowed a little. “Understood. I’m merely here to protect your honor.” He said, turning it into a real bow. She resisted the urge to kick him in the shin and pulled the door open.

“Come on, he’s at the gate.” She said. “And don’t be a total douche bag.” When he saw the extra passenger, Roy said rolled down the window.

“You sit in the back.” He said to Jason. Jason slid across the hood and got to the front seat before Evelyn, closing the door with finality. He smiled a very sharp toothed smile at Roy, featuring one canine. Evelyn didn’t feel like fighting so she got into the back seat behind Roy and Roy shifted gears. “I guess not.”

______________________________________________

They were fashionably late; the party was in full swing when they got there. Bruce was the only billionaire in Gotham, but there were plenty of millionaires that also lived in the hills outside the city. Evelyn envied these people their ignorance, their ease, their social lubrication, but felt safe in her differences because Roy and Jason were there to lead by example. These people were the sons and daughters of the people Bruce partied with and so the social rules were slightly skewed towards a new generation. She felt a little more at ease within this dark, chaotic party than she had at the last gala she’d attended with Bruce. It was a little more like her world. As they walked in, Roy put his arm around her waist as the bass shook her bones and she felt at home there in the shadows. He leaned over and shouted over the music.

“Come on, I’ll introduce you to some of my friends.” He said. She followed, Jason trailing after them in the background. The rules were different here; while she wasn’t looking, he grabbed a solo cup from a stack and poured a little tequila and sprite in before catching up with them.

It was fun, in a way; she’d come to spend more time getting to know Roy, and it turned out that nobody cared who she was when he didn’t introduce her with her last name. She was as pleasantly anonymous as she wanted to be, moving through the party as if she owned the space. Roy wanted to dance and Jason was attached at her hip so she danced with both of them, dancing with them the way she’d danced with Robin and feeling no pang for him, too focused on Roy. He was tall and in that dark space he took up every one of her senses except for the pounding music in her ears. She didn’t want it to end, but eventually she was sweating from the amount of bodies in the space and their movement, breaking off to go to the bathroom. She found girls popping pills in the first bathroom, saying no thanks and moving on to the next one, grabbing herself a solo cup of sprite before heading back to Roy. He gave her a wicked grin when he saw her, pulling her in close so he could talk in her ear.

“You wanna do something fun?”

“Depends on how you define fun.” She answered, shouting over the music.

“Strip poker sounds fun.” He said. She considered for a moment. Poker was easy. Poker was a Miami scam that she had mastered for the sake of a quick buck. The only question was to hustle the first game and lie in wait for the second, or clean the table as soon as she got there. She didn’t mind people seeing her naked body; physical privacy was a gift that had been taken away from her quite quickly, and while she treasured her secrets, she felt that the concept of trying to keep bodies a secret was laughable. Everyone had a body. She nodded and he took her to one of the upstairs rooms where the dealer was shuffling already. They sat down on the floor and she noticed that there were two handles of whiskey and another stack of cups that were being distributed. Jason had followed and sat beside her, leaning over for a second. It was going to be one of those games. You lost and you either stripped or drank, the latter of course to guarantee that everyone would eventually strip due to losing or inebriation.

“Evie, maybe-” He warned, but she stopped him.

“I don’t intend on drinking. Trust me.” She said, taking a cup. There was a lot of whiskey in it. The dealer dealt and she calculated her cards, looking over them and reading the room. She nudged Jason with her shoulder. “Look at your own cards.” She said.

“I’ve always found cheating the best way to win.” He whispered in her ear. She laughed, covering her cards. That might be true but the last person she would lose clothes to was Jason. The game began. Cards were exchanged and people folded, taking off shoes and socks to begin with. Evelyn stayed in the game, turning in three and receiving what she needed for a flush. Unfortunately the man across from her had a four of a kind and she, and the rest of the group removed one item. She laid her socks and shoes behind her and took her newly dealt hand to calculate how best to play it. The next round was a round of miserable hands for everyone because she won with a three of a kind and turned quite pointedly to watch Roy shuck off his shirt. She sighed, tracing the lines of his skin with her eyes. He was a beautifully carved human being, she had to admit. Jason had also taken off his shirt and to her surprise, underneath the teeshirt he was lean but similarly muscular.

“Since when do you exercise?” She asked him, and got a mysterious smile in return.

“Your time will come.” He said, referring to the shirt in his hand. The next round was similarly dismal, the high card, a king of hearts, winning the day. Evelyn chose to take off her crop top, balling it up and shoving it between her crossed legs. No big deal. Jason leaned forwards to get a look at her chest piece and Roy leaned back to look at the ringed scorpions peeking out from her lower back.

“Nice tattoos.” Roy said. “Didn’t know you were that kind of girl.”

“It’s a long story.” She said. She smacked Jason’s arm for looking too long. “Don’t you dare tell Bruce.”

“Wouldn’t dream. I’m just here to make sure you don’t get new ones.” he said, gathering his new set of cards as they were dealt out. As the game progressed more and more people started to drink to avoid taking pants and underwear off, holding it off until they were too drunk to care about nudity among strangers. Evelyn held her own as long as she could, and she was crowned victor after a few rounds had everyone naked and she in her pants and bra. She leaned into Roy’s warm shoulder and could tell he was getting a beer jacket from the whiskey. By the time everyone had awkwardly and laughingly gotten dressed again, it was 2am. She didn’t mind being out late, but she didn’t want to spend all night at the party. She had her own things to do.

“Should you be driving?” Jason asked Roy. “Maybe I should drive.”

“I’ll be fine.” He said, but he had finished his whiskey and so had Jason.

“You’re buzzed at least.” Said Jason.

“I said I’ll be fine.” Roy was getting an edge to his voice.

“You’re not driving my sister home drunk. Give me the keys.”

“You’re one to talk, you’ve been drinking since we got here. Yeah, like I didn’t notice.” Roy shot back.

“I swear to god, Harper, you give me the keys or there’s going to be trouble.” Said Jason. They squared off in the crowd. People were backing away to give them space and Evelyn didn’t need a sixth sense to get that there was trouble coming.

“Yeah, you going to make me, Todd?” Roy asked. With the swiftness of a bird taking flight, Jason slugged him, knocking him a step back. Out of the corner of Evelyn’s eye she noticed someone lifting their phone in a way that said he was recording. She swiped at it and knocked it from his hand.

“Sorry.” She said, unapologetically as he scrambled for his phone. She stepped in front of him for good measure, then between the two men, de-escalating the situation as best she could without punching either one of them, which she would very much like to do. “DON’T make me fight either of you. Both of you are drunk and I’M driving. Give me the keys, Roy.” Rubbing his face with the fire of a fight in his eyes, he glared over her head at Jason but gave her the keys.

“Asshole.” He said to Jason.

“Yeah, you’re not much better.” Said Jason. She grabbed both of them by the sleeve like naughty kittens and hauled them outside. Time to go home.

________________________________________

“You should have let me punch him back.” Said Roy. They were sitting on a dark roof ledge overlooking the river, Arsenal and Agent at 5am waiting for the sun come up.

“I should have let him punch you again.” She said, pouring herself a cup of tea. There were two thermoses between them on the ledge with tea to keep off the spring chill. The caffeine was helping Roy sober up and so was the night air, so she sat with him.

“So I’m just supposed to take it when your guard dog wants to fight?” He asked.

“I can do my own guarding, thanks.” She said. “Jason is a hothead. You’re an adult, you should know better. Someone was starting to film you when I broke it up.”

“How do you know I’m not a hothead?” He asked, finishing his cup of tea. “Jesus you know what sounds good right now, _pizza_.” He was sobering up but still in that zone apparently. Agent poured him another cup of tea and handed it to him.

“Hydrate. I know you’re not a hothead because you didn’t immediately punch him back. Or else I would have left both your asses at the party and taken an uber home to be rid of the shame of you.” She said.

“Oh?” He said. “I’ll fight anybody. I’ll fight your dad. I’ll fight your brother. I’ll fight you.” He said. She scoffed.

“You couldn’t handle me.”

“You want to be handled, I’m your man.”

“Then handle me.” She said, getting to her feet and offering a hand for him to get up.

“You’re serious?”

“Where’s all your bravado, big man?” She asked, grinning. “Don’t think you can take a little girl half your size?” She goaded, backing up to give him room and making a ‘come on’ gesture with one flat hand. She wasn’t half his size per say but he did have a good fifty or so pounds and several inches on her.

“You want to fight, okay. Just don’t be upset when I told you so.” He said, taking a defensive stance.

“Come and get it, Harper.” She said, gesturing with open hands as if she couldn’t be touched. In fact, she wanted to be touched. She wanted Roy to touch her and this was the only way she could really deal with that fact, to be touched in the context of a fight. That was how she knew to make a heart pound and adrenaline rush, her most beloved form of pleasure. He shuffled forward like a boxer with his hands up, tossing a few jabs that she knocked away, backing off. They wove a tight little circle like that, with Roy testing her boundaries and she dodging the blows.

“Oh, you’re good with those arrows but your hand to hand is _rusty_ , sir.” She prodded fun at him.

“You talk a good fight.” He said, ducking. “Did robin teach you that?” This took her by surprise. “He’s a chatterer if there ever was one.” He said, catching her off guard and landing a good hit to her torso, causing her to stumble back. He hesitated a second while she found her feet again and just as he had used her hesitation as an in, she whipped around and landed a good solid roundhouse to his ribs. He wanted to play...she’d play. Like a juggernaut she switched feet and reversed her momentum to hit him again, only to have Roy prepared and catch her by the foot this time. She jerked but her regular strength wasn’t enough to break his grip, instead choosing to move with the motion of his twist, spinning in the air and breaking from his grip, landing on both feet. She grinned at him, backing off and letting him come to her.

She led him on a merry chase across the roof, eventually getting close enough again to leap on him and wrap her legs around his torso, swinging her body hard down and to the side and throwing him into a flip. Both of them landed heavy on the ground, her on top with her hand gripping his collar and her other fist upraised.

“Say uncle or you lose some teeth.” She said, not unfriendly.

“Damn.” He said, letting his head fall back onto the ground in defeat. He lifted both hands in giving up gesture. “Okay, okay, you’re an independent woman.” He said.

“It wasn’t fair, you’re still drunk.” She said. smoothing both hands up his upper chest and considering him in his defeat for a moment. His longish hair was mussed and he had a little cut on his lip from where she’d knocked him a good one.

“That I am.” He admitted, taking the allowance for what it was. “That was actually kind of hot though.” Her blood was up and she saw the same light in his eyes, that same itch only beginning to be scratched. She didn’t think about it, bending down and pressing her lips fiercely to his. He responded by grabbing her own collar and pulling her as physically close as possible. She could taste the salt of his sweat and the little bit of blood on his cut lip, feel the stubble on his chin. He smelled as always, of engine grease and testosterone, the muscles in his chest flexing as he pressed her to him. Inexperienced but eager, she let him take charge, let him run his hand up underneath her armor and feel her breast. She’d had no idea that that could feel so good, huffing a sigh into the kiss and letting her hips settle into his.

Roy began stripping himself of his gloves and she did the same, also kicking off her boots. He tugged at it in frustration and she took off her layer of armor and threw it aside so there was only a layer of cloth between him and her skin. He was so warm in the chill of spring, sitting up and holding her close in his lap. Some memory in her responded and she ground against him, taking his other hand and pressing it against her other breast. She kissed his jaw and he responded with a rumble of pleasure in her ear, encouraging her to move lower and kiss his neck, nipping a little.

“You want to make Jason really upset?” He asked.

"Yeah" She breathed, pausing to reach down and feel his hardness with her fingers. It wasn’t her first time feeling that, but it was the first time she’d wanted to, and without any hidden agenda. “With you.” She said, gripping him through his pants. He groaned and fell back to the roof again, letting her go so she could shuck off her pants. They were alone and would continue to be alone. The world was just the two of them and adrenaline was rushing through every part of them, demanding, demanding that they touch every inch of skin possible. He guided himself into her and as he went in she gasped, bowing her head for a moment. There was the itch she couldn’t scratch. She began to move, head thrown back and mouth open.

___________________________________

She didn’t regret it, but lying in bed with the sun coming through the curtains, she couldn’t help but think about the smallest, inconsequential detail of her encounter. Her education had never been completed until tonight and she had questions. After tossing and turning for a few hours, she finally dipped two fingers between her legs and found herself sore but clean. She’d showered when she came home, but that wasn’t the problem. She sat up and grabbed her cell phone from the charger and hit Bab’s contact card. It rang and when it was answered, Babs didn’t sound too happy to be up at 8am.

“It’s saturday, I wasn’t supposed to be up....” She complained.

“Babs, it’s an emergency.”

“Yeah you say that.”

“Aren’t you supposed to bleed your first time?” She asked. There was a pause on the other side and when Barbra spoke she sounded more alert.

“Your first time, first time, like having sex?”

“Yeah.” Said Evelyn. She was very unsure about this, never having gone to the girls in the Titans for advice. She’d had Kay to help her through her first period, but this was entirely new.

“I mean, not necessarily....” Said Barbra, hesitantly. “Most of the time, I guess? Did it hurt?”

“A little. Not a lot, just....See, the thing is, this is the first time I’ve ever...slept with someone and I thought....” She struggled her way through it because of what it could mean. She just didn’t remember, but she didn’t trust herself to know. There had been a lot of drugs involved and she had lost a lot of her memory of that time. “The thing is...There was this guy. And I’m not sure if we ever...but the only reason I can think of-” She broke off.

“Hey, calm down, we’ll talk about it, ok?” Said Barbra, catching her before she went off that ledge. When she next spoke, her voice was gentle and hesitant. “Is it possible that you did already, you just don’t remember?” Evelyn didn’t want to consider it. She was sure that whatever had happened it was Slade’s fault because she would never. _Never_. Not knowingly.

“I don’t know.” She answered. There was a long pause.

“Are you okay?” Barbra finally asked. “Do you need me to come over?” Evelyn wouldn’t have ever considered it, but right now she didn’t want to think about what she was thinking about.

“Please.”

“Let me get a ride, I’ll be over in an hour.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, y'all thought we wouldn't revisit that, didn't you?


	22. Sleepless in Seattle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: The solution to nightmares is to just stay awake, right??? A mess of a chapter

Evelyn hadn’t cried unless from physical pain since she was a child. As a child she had cried a lot, from the sheer difficulty and misery of sleeping in the rain, of going hungry, of being run out of safe places, but the harder life had treated her the harder her heart had grown against her own pain. To survive you had to be hard, to feel less, and so she did. So she had not cried over this. She had nightmares instead.

Sleeping had always been her most defenseless time. She had always had a knife and known how to use it, but sometimes sleep wasn’t an option and so it wasn’t now. She had functioned on less sleep before but it was starting to affect her performance at school. She snapped at students and teachers alike. Even Bruce noticed and interrogated her at the dinner table.

“You want to tell me what’s going on?” He asked.

“Yeah, Evie, why are you being such a massive bitch?” Asked Jason. Bruce feinted throwing a fork at him and he ducked. Evelyn had bags under her eyes that could carry all her worldly belongings.

“I haven’t been sleeping well.” She said, lackluster as she twirled her pasta on her own fork.

“Why aren’t you sleeping?” Bruce asked.

“Can’t.” She said. There was a pause in which he considered her and her monosyllabic answer for a moment over his pasta.

“Do you want a sleeping pill tonight? I have some left over you can take.” He finally asked. She cringed inwardly. Any normal dosage of a sleeping pill could knock her out for days, and she wasn’t about to discuss her special needs with him. Then again a deep and dreamless sleep was tempting. She could just take a razor and shave off a little of the pill and dissolve it into a glass of water and see if that-

“No.” She said, firmly. There was no guarantee that a pill would take away the nightmares and she had finished with Slade the day she’d left him to die. She wanted no more of him and her mind’s attempt to recover whatever memories of him he’d taken from her. She didn’t remember what he did to her but her imagination had gone into overdrive to replace those memories and none of it was pleasant. She took to the streets of Gotham every night in the hopes that something would happen, something would distract her, save her- and there was the usual activity, enough to keep her distracted and sane, but her saving grace wasn’t what she had ever expected.

She felt like she was lagging, she just wanted to rest and so she found herself on the couch in sweats and a tank top. She had a bedroom with a bed and a lock on the door now, but it couldn’t keep Deathstroke out. Bruce was off at a charity event tonight and she was in front of the tv back at home, having blessedly talked her way out of going. The event was televised and she’d figured she’d watch the proceedings from afar on tv and maybe, maybe tonight get some sleep. Alfred brought her warm milk to encourage her to fall asleep there in the dark living room and she settled down, trying to talk herself down. Alfred was here to wake her up if she started having another nightmare. Slade was dead. She had never been safer, in this house. Try as she might her subconscious was stubborn so she stayed up to watch the televised event. There was going to be a ball and some giant cardboard checks and everyone would be entertained, sure. On screen they wheeled out an enormous pink frosted cake to enthusiastic applause. It had been donated for the event and now that speeches were done it was time to cut the cake.

The broadcast lasted just long enough for the Joker to jump out of the cake.

“Surprise!” He cackled, pulling a sawed off shotgun from his jacket and aiming it at the camera. There was an explosion and confetti rained down seconds before the broadcast cut off. There was static for a second, then a rainbow block and the words “technical difficulties” swam across the screen. Picture came back to the broadcast’s source at channel 9 news and some concerned looking reporters.

“-yes, it seems the Joker is once again at large-”

“We’re getting reports of hostages being taken-”

“This just in, Bruce Wayne has been taken hostage by the Joker and taken to a second location.”

Evelyn dropped the remote.

___________________________________

It was the perfect staging place, an abandoned theme park. It had been long since gated and chained, but the chains were now lying on the ground cut. Agent crept through the gap in the gate, careful not to make it clink. Three different bodies went over the fence in three different places. Maybe Batman had heard and would get there before she did, but she wasn’t leaving Bruce’s life, limbs, and liberty in someone else’s hands when her hands could do it. If she could find him first. She crept from attraction to attraction, listening and using her heat signature trace. Nobody had been here for years which made it easy to find the one heat trail-

Out of the corner of her eye she could tell that someone else had been here, not just Joker and his captive. They had left a wide swathe of a trail, more bodies, more heat, but these were small, single person trails, sometimes going over the attractions instead of around them. They were still attached to people, heat figures in the dark. They seemed to have stopped to consult one another at the peak of a carousel. They couldn’t be lookouts? Tapping the side of her mask, she activated her listen-in and focused it at the carousel.

Hushed voices.

“What do you mean Batman’s not coming?”

Batman wasn’t coming. Of course, Agent had made the best choice in coming despite her handicap. She shot a grappling line into the top of the carousel and joined Robin and a black garbed girl in a hood mask. Robin shot her a look.

“Bruce Wayne gets kidnapped and I’m not supposed to show up?” She asked. He sighed.

“Batgirl, Agent. Agent, Batgirl.” He waved a gloved hand from the hooded girl to Agent and back again. A flaming sheet of hair flowed from underneath her mask, her lips painted a similar red.

“Do we know where he’s being held?” Agent asked. Sure she could take the time to sweep the park or she could just ask.

“We think his base of operations is in the fun house.” Said Robin.

“Great, what are we waiting for?” Agent asked.

“Not so fast,” Robin said. “You’re new here, you’ve never dealt with the Joker before. He has traps, guaranteed before we get there.” Batgirl gave him a playful kind of shove.

“You should be less uptight, boy in tights. This isn’t your first time.” She said.

“I didn’t approve that nickname.” He snapped.

“Look, can we focus, I’m running on fumes and I need to get this done.” Agent said, snapping her fingers in the air between them to get them back on track. “Funhouse, what direction? We’ll split up and approach from three different points. Got it?” She asked. Batgirl pointed in the direction of the funhouse and they split, two capes unfurling in the night.

There was a padlock on the door she approached from and she didn’t feel like she had the patience or the faculties to pull out her picks and unlock it, so she grabbed it and yanked, her eyes going black. The padlock broke and was thrown onto the dirt. The place was, as advertised, a maze. The lights were on despite the rest of the park not having power. She crept inside, expecting traps like Robin had said. But what could she do but face them, deal with them, and be done with them. Finding her way through the mirror maze was the first step, getting more and more disoriented as she bumped around the maze with her hands outstretched. Thinking about Bruce somewhere in there, probably tied up, not knowing what the Joker was going to do with him or if he was just bait for bigger things, was making her begin to sweat. She wiped the open palms of her gloves on the thighs of her leggings, walking as quickly as she could. Joker might know she was here by now- and as that thought hit her, the giant wooden mallet came swinging out of the ceiling as if to ring a bell.

She was trapped in the narrow fun house corridor with nowhere to go so she went forward, throwing herself into a roll under the head of the mallet and sneezing as she was engulfed in glitter. As the dust and glitter settled, she heard a high pitched giggle over what seemed to be speakers in the walls. It was an insane sound, a maddening, mocking sound to her in her sleep deprived state. He knew someone was here alright. She applied a little strength and one foot to the She continued through the maze and found herself headed towards a dark passage out of the house of mirrors. The mirrors ended and so did the lights. She crept inside, flashlight out, and was suddenly blinded by the lights and noise coming on. It was a birthday party

“Welcome, Batman, to my Ha-Hacienda-” The Joker started, throwing one arm into the air dramatically- then he saw the three of them approaching from different entrances and let his arm fall in disappointment. “Oh, not you!”. Robin looked to be covered in different colored streamers, Batgirl was dripping water onto the floor, and Agent was covered in glitter. Amidst the scenery like a five year old’s clown obsessed birthday party gone wrong, dangled Bruce Wayne in his tux and plenty of ropes, gagged and suspended above a circular tank filled with small fish.

“No Batman today.” Said Robin, sounding irritated as he ripped a few streamers from himself.

“No Bats??” Joker said. He sounded wildly disappointed by this. After all what was all the pomp and circumstance for, if not his favorite nemesis.

“Maybe some bats, but mostly us.” Said Agent, wielding the wooden handle she’d broken off like a bat.

“Ooh, who are you? You seem...fashionably inept, just like him. What are those, catcher’s pads?” He drawled. She tried not to sway on the spot but she was just so. God. Damn. Tired. Focus.

“My name’s Agent, and I’m here to kick your pasty clown ass.” She said, pointing the handle at him. She was about to throw caution to the wind and beat this motherfucker within an inch of his life, but Batgirl stopped her.

“Wait. The tank.”

“That’s right, batsy- you get close enough and Brucie Wayne gets dunked! Those are Piranhas, you see.” He said with glee, Harley, behind him, giggled and leaned forward on her mallet, expressing each vowel clearly with just as much enthusiasm.

“Pi-ran-has!” She exclaimed, grinning and snapping at the air with her teeth.

“Sadly,” Joker simpered, “I don’t want anyone but the BIG bat-” He cocked his gun and aimed it at Robin. “And I’m not leaving until I get him, so that means all of you- have to go!!” shouted Joker. On cue, Robin dove away as it exploded into a shower of confetti. Joker had chosen to engage with him, so he was his responsibility- that left Harley and Bruce to contend with.

“Batgirl, get Harley!” Shouted Agent, taking a run for the tank. Batgirl leapt for Harley, meeting the mallet midair and going flying in the opposite direction. While she was engaged, Robin went after Joker, who danced out of the way and begin leading him on a merry chase, bursts of confetti streaming through the air as Robin dodged and parried. Agent rushed for the tank, vaulting off a hand railing and onto the edge of the tank. Bruce seemed nonplussed at all the activity, like he’d seen it before. Just like San Franciscans, Gothamites had seen it all.

Balancing precariously on the three inch thick glass, she looked down into the tank for a second. She’d never seen a piranha before but she wasn’t sure they’d look like this. She was losing focus. Snapping her attention to Bruce, she flicked out her knife and cut the gag off of his face.

“This is going to hurt.” She said, matter of factly, and pushed him so he’d begin to swing.

“What are you go-” Bruce started, but all she did was catch him when he came back and give him a harder push. In the background, Harley and Batgirl were still going at it, and somehow, Joker hadn’t run out of ammunition. Robin was bleeding a little by now- he’d discovered for fact what he’d suspected, that inside the confetti was birdshot. As they did their dance around the room, Robin got close to the tank. Agent had gotten enough momentum built up so she timed the swing so Bruce was at peak and she leaped to slash the rope suspending him so he would land far away from the tank. She and Robin jumped at almost the same moment- but when he was gone, she was still there in the background and at the receiving end of a spray of bird shot.

She tucked into a roll and landed beside Bruce on the floor. Bleeding a little bit from her arm and back, she gritted her teeth. Pain was less easy to take when you were so tired your brain was burning. Where was her knife? She heard a cry of pain behind her and Harley came flying out of nowhere and hit the opposite wall, cracking it. Batgirl followed and pulled a pair of handcuffs from her belt, dragging Harley to a door and locking her to the handle.

“Can you take him?” Agent called to Batgirl. “I’d like to be busy.” Batgirl unclipped a knife from her belt, unfolding it and beginning to saw at the ropes that held Bruce. It appeared that the landing had knocked him out. Agent turned to Robin and the Joker. She came out of the periphery at Joker and just as he was about to aim another shot at Robin, she barreled into him, causing the shot to go off and they went down in a spray of confetti.

“Oh now you’re helping?” Said Robin. Agent snarled, coming out on top of Joker and raising her fist.

“Alright, look, you second rate, two bit piece of trash, I was going to sleep tonight! I was comfortable-” She punched him in the face. “-had a blanket-” She punched him again. “-And I was going to sleep!” Punch “And now, instead, I’m out here with you, in your ha-ha-hacienda or whatever,” Punch “-having to beat the crap out of a grown man” Punch “-dressed like a fucking clown!”

She raised her fist to punched him again when she realized that the man in her hands was in fact very average in terms of physique and endurance and she should stop. He groaned like a cartoon character, somewhat crosseyed from the beating, and she let him go with a huff. Now in the background she could hear sirens. Cops.

“Who called the cops?” She asked. Everything in her brain was on fire, the furniture to the curtains. The goals she had started with her accomplished and now she just wanted to sleep, but a kind of manic rage was keeping her awake.

“I did.” Said Batgirl. “While you were beating the shit out of Joker.” How else are they going to get to Arkham?”

“I don’t do cops.” Agent said, shaking some blood off her gloves. “Make sure they get him home.”

“What, you don’t do cleanup?” Quipped Robin. She wasn’t in the mood, kicking the exit door open.

“Get him home!” She emphasized, disappearing into the night. As she stepped outside, she tried to calculate her options but all she desperately wanted was sleep. She took her cell phone out of her utility belt and slid down the wall to sit as she made her call.

“Hello?”

“Roy, I haven’t slept in five days.” She said.

“Evelyn?”

“Yeah?” She sighed. She had a headache.

“Come back to my place. I’ll make you tea.”

“I don’t want tea.”

“Trust me. Old indigenous recipe, it’ll put you out like a light.”

“.....Sure.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The quarantine is getting to me. Someone send masks and chocolate. Good news for you guys is that I have several chapters worth of content to drop all at once.


	23. Brotherly Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: It's like when the hero gets injured and the love interest stitches them up with trembling feminine hands, except its Roy. Also, you mess with Jason's girls and you mess with him

Roy lived on the sixteenth floor, in a little studio apartment that was obviously a bachelor pad in the most collegiate sense. As he opened the door, he kicked a pair of pants under the couch the best he could, but he hadn’t removed the half eaten pizza from the coffee table or gotten rid of the wilted plant next to it. He gave her a teeshirt of his to wear and she piled her costume on the chair in the living room, stripping in the living room without regard to the window while he made tea. When he came back she was in the shirt and her panties on the couch, inspecting her left bicep. There was bird shot underneath the skin, having healed over in the hour it had taken her to get from the amusement park to Roy’s place. He came and put the tea on the coffee table next to the pizza box

“Do you have a sharp knife?” She asked, still inspecting the back of her arm. She felt it in her back too.

“What for?” He asked, eyebrows quirking in and up as she pulled the shirt over her back and head and held it to her front. She showed him the back of her arm and poked the pellets so they moved under her skin.

“I need to get bird shot from under my skin. It healed over already so I have to cut it out.” She said. He inspected the absence of wound, moving a pellet a little under her skin with a finger.

“Jesus.” He said. “Yeah, one sec.” He went into the kitchen and got a paring knife and a bottle of vodka, splashing the vodka over the blade and bringing a dish towel and sitting back down with her. “Do you want me to do it, or....?” He asked. She considered for a second and then gave him her arm. It would be like giving blood, just a pinch.

“Go ahead.” She said. Scooting close, he gripped her arm to hold her steady and put the tip of the blade to her skin, looking into her face before focusing on pressing the blade through the first couple of layers of flesh. The first one came out with a little pop and he took it with bloody fingers and put it in the pizza box. He worked in silence, watching as the last cut healed as he made the next one and the next one, removing the bird shot one by one until her arm and back was running with blood.

“Wow.” He said, watching the last one close itself up. He wiped her arm clean of the blood and she sat back, wrapping his throw blanket around herself with a sigh. “That’s quite a talent.”

“It can be a pain in the ass.” She said, flexing the thumb that she’d broken a few months ago. Hollow eyed, she thanked him for the tea and took it and downed a mouthful of the scalding mixture before he could stop her. He cleaned the knife and wrapped his arm across the back of the couch behind Evelyn’s shoulders. She grimaced, exhaling what felt like super heated air.

“God, you’re reckless when you haven’t slept.” He said, watching her blow on the tea.

“You have no idea.” She mumbled.

Her bones were sinking wearily into the couch and the tea was warming her from the inside out. Sleep seemed achievable, tempting, safe with Roy watching out for her. He watched the skyline out the window for a few minutes and caught her nodding off at the halfway point of her tea. She didn’t protest when he picked her up bridal style and carried her to the bedroom. He laid her down on top of the sheets and folded the comforter over on her. Snuggled into this panini of comfort, she fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

_______________________________

It didn’t ring, the piece of shit, but she was in a light area of sleep and woke when she heard the vibration next to her head. Through the haze she understood that her cell phone was going off and that there was a body wrapped around hers. Not moving other than a groping hand, she picked it up and mashed the phone into her ear. It was Jason. He sounded miffed.

“Where are you? Bruce is being released from the hospital in like, now.”

“He’s in the hospital?” She asked groggily.

“Yeah, he was kidnapped. No biggie, but whoever you’re with, it better be PTA approved or you better get home in the next half hour.” Jason said. Evelyn sat up, extricating herself from Roy’s warm limbs and regretfully, out of his bed. He was still half asleep, hair falling into his eyes. She found it amazing but relieving that Jason would guess that the reason for her absence was sex and not an alternate life that she was just barely keeping under wraps at this point.

“Can you cover for me?” She asked, extricating herself from Roy’s big teeshirt. There was a wolf whistle from the bed that she pretended that Jason couldn’t hear on the other line.

“Not long. Get home or get caught.” He said. He hung up. She thought for a second. She didn’t have a change of clothes, she’d have to park Viper at the back of the house and use a jump line to haul herself up to her balcony to avoid walking through the house in costume. From there she could change into pajamas and pretend that she had slept through the whole fiasco. By the time she was buckling on her utility belt, Roy had come out and was stretching in his boxers. Rather than enjoy the view she was focused on getting home before Bruce did and didn’t stop as she said her goodbyes.

“Call me.” She said, and the door shut.

_______________________________________________________

Evelyn walked the very fine line between hot and cold with Roy. While when she was with him all she wanted to do was rip his clothes off, maybe after a good fight, when they were in public together she almost refused to touch him. The fastest way for Bruce to catch her sleeping with Roy was to get caught in public by paparazzi. This meant minimal PDA in public, and only in dark corners where she thought that no one would notice, but something went awry and she found out at lunch.

“I should be the person to show you this before you find out, honestly.” Barbra said, flipping her phone to show a low quality but still unfortunately clear picture of Evelyn and a certain redhead locked in a kiss. They were in movie theater seats but faces clearly lit by the screen, the picture taken from a few rows below. She kicked herself for having felt safe at the time. She took the phone from Babs to further inspect it.

“What piece of shit did this??” She asked.

“Brett Neilson. He says he’s going to sell it to a magazine or something.”

“So you’re telling me so far this is contained to the school?” That was something. “Who else knows?”

“...Pretty much...everybody...People are saying-”

“What’s up, slut?” Said Jason, plopping himself down across from them.

“Excuse me??” She said, surprised to be taken aback by anything. Maybe she was going soft.

“You got caught. I told you, don’t get caught, and what do you do, you get caught.” He said.

“I sleep with one guy and suddenly I’m a slut?” She said, feeling anger rise within her.

“Apparently that’s the score.” Said Barbra. Evelyn turned on her, hurt, and she put her hands up. “I’m not saying that’s right.”

“I am willing, for a limited time only, to take care of this for you. BUT, if you get caught again you’re on your own.” Jason said. Babs reached out to swat him but Evelyn caught her hand and looked at Jason.

“What are you going to do?” She asked. He had his phone out and was texting something.

“Me? I seek nothing but justice and a few distractions. For instance. Babs. Go over and tell Mr. Bob-” he was referring to Bob Arbuckle, the current lunchroom chaperone, “that someone was smoking out behind the gym and lit a trash can on fire.”

“Do you really think he’ll believe that?”

“Coming from you, of course. He’ll believe anything you say.” He said, putting away his phone. Babs got up. They watched her approach and get Mr. Arbuckle’s attention. She said something, gesturing towards the gym, and he skittered off. Coast being clear, Jason removed the items from his lunch tray and took the empty tray to where Brett Neilson was showing his friends something on his cell phone. He didn’t look up as Jason approached, so he got his attention just as he lifted the tray into the air with both hands. “Heads up!” Said Jason, and swing the tray at full speed into Brett’s face.

________________________________

There was no evidence on which Jason could be convicted of any wrongdoing, but it was highly suspicious that when they got out of school, Brett Neilson took his broken nose out to the parking lot to get his car and found it resting on cinderblocks. Evelyn watched him tear at his hair from the top of the main entrance steps. He hadn’t left her side since lunch but there was no question in her mind that Jason had done it, somehow.

“Have I mentioned that I think I love you?” She said, casually, as she watched the scene play out below.

“You’ll say nothing of the sort.” He replied, not looking up from his phone.


	24. The Master's Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: It's the big fight, Evelyn versus Big Bad, take yer bets, take yer bets

One of the reasons Evelyn was so hot and heavy with Roy is that his apartment, his bed, specifically with him, was the one place she could sleep soundly without any nightmares. There was something about sleeping with another body. The kind of pack security that provided made her feel safe enough that she could sleep. Between work and getting back to the house before it was time to leave for school, she wasn’t getting a lot of hours, but at least she was getting hours. It was Saturday and she had excuses so she had spent the afternoon with him in his apartment instead of with Babs. It was a lazy afternoon and she’d changed early, getting into one of his big teeshirts and doing no convincing at all to get him to order pizza for dinner. He wasn’t much of a cook, but it wasn’t a talent she’d had the opportunity to develop either.

She’d always been a slave to her desires in a way, having to think little beyond providing necessities for herself, and sex was no different. Before her metahuman gene had been activated and she’d grown, she’d always been less than curvy, but even then, when she’d hit puberty and had started growing into her face she’d started being noticed by men and thus had to think about sex only so far as how to keep it from happening to her. She’d felt the pangs of young love early, but hadn’t thought about sex until maybe...Robin. It wasn’t on a level that she had been consciously aware of and so she hadn’t pushed into that territory with him, but she’d always had that kind of itch after sparring with him. With Roy, she’d learned how to scratch the itch and thus discover it for what it was. She didn’t consider his age for a moment, thinking of him as her equal in combat and therefore her equal as a sexual partner. He was an ideal partner to learn with, eager to lead and easy to laugh.

Tonight they were staying in and they couldn’t decide on what to watch on tv, post pizza. Evelyn wanted to watch something trashy. It was, after all, their day off. She sat up and pivoted on the couch, one long leg coming over to the other side of his lap and sitting there. One hand creeping down his arm and towards the remote in his hand, she pressed herself against him. She’d known that she could use sex to get what she wanted before she’d even had it and Roy was no different than any man in that respect.

“If we watch my show, I’ll give you a preview of bedtime.” She said.

“Seducing me, Miss Wayne, just to watch All My Children?”

“I have got to find out what’s going to happen at Erica Kane’s tenth wedding. I will do just anything to find out.” She said, grinning and then lowering her face towards his. He kissed her, laughing. She withdrew, smiling and running her fingers through his hair.

And suddenly her heart stopped, it clicking in her mind what the red dot that had just appeared at Roy’s temple was. Instinctively she grabbed him by the shirt and yanked him backwards, pushing off from the couch and rolling them both across the coffee table and onto the floor. As she did this, there was a whizzing sound and then the glass patio door shattered as a bullet broke it.

\-----------------------------------

“I have to go.” She said. No more bullets had come; it had been a warning shot. It had been a message. And it was from somebody she knew. There was something about this that smelled fishy. Maybe Arsenal had enemies, that could be a thing, but Roy? This couldn’t be about Roy, but who did she know that knew her face, that had that kind of grudge on her? Who could know she was in Gotham in the first place and find it acceptable to shoot the man she was with to get her attention?

“I don’t feel super comfortable with you going out there right now, we just got shot at.” Said Roy. They’d swept up the glass, but the sliding glass window was open permanently until it could be repaired.

“Look. I have to be home in eight hours, which means I have seven to take care of this. We were shot at once, not twice, not three times. One bullet from a high powered rifle. It’s someone I know, and they wanted to get a point across, not kill us.” She was buckling her armor on as she talked. Roy grabbed her arm to stop her from pacing.

“Hey, I’m not a civilian, I’m not going to sit at home and let you go traipsing off into the dark alone in search of a shooter.”

“There’s a lot about me that I haven’t told you, Roy. I know some bad people and I can’t let you get involved.” She said.

“You’re not the only one who wears a mask, Evelyn. I can help.” He said. It was a fair point, but if she was going to face this man from the grave, she wasn’t about to let him near Roy. She’d learned her lesson from Robin. Don’t show Slade your toys, or he’d take them from you. She stopped before putting on her mask, cupping his face in her hands and looking into his eyes.

“I know this man. He will use you to get to me, and that will put me in a vulnerable position and he will win and you will lose me.” She went up on tiptoe to kiss him. “I don’t have time to argue with you, I have to go.”

She let him go and put on her mask as she walked out the door.

______________________________

Agent knew she was being followed. What was unexpected was that there were two shadows, not the expected one. She had kept moving until she reached the courthouse roof. There was plenty of open space, but also enough structures built into the roof to make for a playground of shadows. The footsteps were not silent, she tracked them and tensed to pounce, but when she saw a flash of color it was red and green. Instead of jumping out and clotheslining the figure she put her fingers in her mouth and emitted a short, high pitched whistle. A moment later, Robin landed beside her in a crouch.

“What are you doing here?” She whispered.

“We’re backing you up. Do you know you’re being followed?” He asked.

“Yes, that’s why I’m here. Where’s Batman?” She asked. In an ideal world she would be able to defeat Slade alone, but Robin might do as backup. He was A Robin, but he wasn’t her Robin, and Slade couldn’t use him against her.

“It’s just me and Batgirl.” He said, giving her a quizzical look.

“I’m here.” Said a silent shadow. A slight figure dressed in black had crept up behind Robin, peeking over his shoulder. Allies. But not allies she had a strong emotional connection to. Her confidence bolstered, she started giving directions.

“Here’s how this is going to go. We’re going to let him come to us. I fight him alone, but if he takes me out, you two will be my seconds. If things get even worse after that or if he tries to take me to a second location...You need to make sure Batman is on his way.”

“Powers?” Asked Batgirl, getting down to the nitty gritty.

“He’s enhanced. Strength, speed. Everything.”

“Yeah! Let’s play.” Said Robin a little too exuberantly for her taste, flipping a batarang into the air and catching it. She shook her head; she knew where he was coming from, but he wasn’t getting the seriousness of this particular situation. Slade wasn’t a two bit joker, he was deadly and she knew she was only still alive because she was valuable to him.

“Watch each other’s backs. He’s better than you th-” She froze, some sixth sense kicking in a second before he called her name.

“Agent!” Slade’s voice came in a shout across the rooftop. Immediately her heart rate skyrocketed and she squeezed her hands into fists, calming herself. So he was really alive, she hadn’t just been paranoid or conjecturing.

“I’m here, Slade.” She said, stepping from behind the unit and into the light. He was less than a hundred feet away standing on the ledge of the roof, broadsword in hand, the ties of his mask fluttering behind him in a night breeze. Some sourceless light glinted off the edge of his sword. She walked towards him, pulling out her knife and flipping it through her fingers and into a solid battle grip. “I was done with you. Why couldn’t you stay dead?” She asked.

“Oh, I was almost dead, you did very well. But you can never get rid of me, Agent. You can’t defy me. Surely you’re learning that by now.” He said. She could hear Robin and Batgirl coming out of cover behind her. “Oh, you brought friends. You know how I love meeting your friends....”

“Actually we’re work colleagues. We don’t see each other socially so you could slice them into pieces and I wouldn’t know who’s funeral to attend. And they’re here merely in an observant capacity. Isn’t that right, Batgirl?”

“I’m not volunteering for slicing, but that’s right, we don’t know each other.” She said. He jumped down from the ledge, landing heavy but solid on the roof and twirling his sword experimentally as he stalked forward.

“I see. So is it just us dancing this evening?” He asked. They began to circle.

“It looks like it.” She said. She halted her circling and shifted into a defensive stance with her knife upraised, making a “come on” gesture with her other hand. There was a savage glint in her eyes. _I’m going to do to you what you think you’re going to do to me._ “You and me, Deathstroke. Let’s rumble.”

A matching light glimmered from beneath his own mask and she could tell that he would enjoy this as much as she would. He smirked through his mask.

“Always quick to the offense.” He commented. She stood rooted to the spot, observing his movements. She had never fought him with a bladed weapon before and she wasn’t taking any chances. He advanced, the sword spinning through his hands expertly. The flat of the blade beat against the air, its-

WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP

-filling her auditory senses like the chopping of a helicopter. Behind her, Batgirl and Robin backed off, giving her and Deathstroke space. He got close enough, the blade an unstoppable whirl of razor sharp metal. He broke the familiarity of movement, the sword emerging from its orbit to sweep at her head-

Agent hadn’t moved yet, but now she did, her body making a smooth arch backwards as she swung underneath the blade, moving as if she were connected to strings. She was going to need to be as smooth as possible to make this work.

“You’re slow.” He said, taking a sweep at her feet seeking to land her on her back, but she planted her hands on the ground, flipping neatly backwards.

“I’m fast enough!” She said, her foot connecting with his chin; he took another slice towards her head and a line of blood appeared on her cheek, making her close one eye in reflex. He was right, she hadn’t ducked fast enough. She spun backwards, taking a split second to re-evaluate the space between them. She had enough room. Slade took another vicious kick to the face, making him stagger backwards. As he did, she caught the flash of movement towards something on his belt, a blinding screen of light bursting up from the ground. She was knocked backwards, managing to take it at a roll and leap up. He was gone. Panic bit her, her head swiveling wildly around to Robin and Batgirl. “Where is he?!” She shouted to the others. Batgirl and Robin instinctively came closer together, almost back to back, also looking for the invisible enemy.

“I don’t see him.” Robin reported.

“Me neither.” Said Batgirl. “Back up, Robin!”

There was only one reason that he could have abandoned his battle with Agent, she wasn’t playing how he liked so he was going to go after one of them.

“Form a defensive position, he could be anywhere!” Shouted Agent, shifting this way and that to see if she could spot movement, anything- sinister laughter- too familiar, too nightmarish- came from the shadows.

“Let me put you out of your misery.” He said, springing from the shadows with the agility of a big cat. Batgirl and Robin broke their defensive circle, scattering like bowling pins.

“Shit, you’re persistent!” Exclaimed Batgirl as she went into a forward roll to avoid a stroke of Slade’s sword. It stuck into the concrete, cutting a scar into the roof as if it were merely wood.

“Get out of the way!” Robin shouted urgently, taking advantage of his distraction by tossing a handful of pellets towards him. A cloud of thick purple smoke masked the area, giving Batgirl a chance to spring away. Agent moved like a ferret, barely a blur as she streaked through the smoke, her knife flashing in what little light made it through the fog. It cleared a second later, showing her where Deathstroke was.

She leapt into the air, coming down with a growl of vengeance. They tumbled to the ground together but he had succeeded in releasing his sword, swinging it around and blocking her blade easily. She gritted her teeth and pressed down as hard as she could, their blades grating together with a sound like nails on a chalkboard. She might have the upper hand, but he still had the advantage of size.

His knee went into her stomach, knocking what felt like the very residue of air from her lungs and sending her flying away from him. He was on his feet before she was, the tip of his sword scoring a mark in her chest armor and nicking another slice into her arm. She rolled out of the way to avoid another attack, leaping to her feet and skidding backwards in a defensive crouch, one hand on the ground, the other outstretched behind her for balance.

“You’ve always been a sucker for punishment, so I do my best to give you what you want, Agent.” He said. He rested his sword on his shoulder, taking a break since he seemed to have the situation under control. “Hm…Should I tell you my new idea to bring the Teen Titans down? It’s a good one, if I don’t say so myself. Plenty to work with.”

Had it been a year ago, a wracking shiver would have run up her spine, but now it only made her angry. His casual manner sent a surge of thirst for his blood through her.

“You fucker, I’m going to rip out your heart and feed it to you.”

Her lungs had came back again but he gave her no opportunity to breathe easy. He showed no sign that he had anything but apathy for her threat.

“Murderous threat. Why don’t we test your theory?”

SLKKT

He was fast, skidding in behind her before she could turn and giving her a punishing slash across her lower back where there was no armor. She didn’t have to see it to know that it was serious, feeling it like a brand of white flame. The agony was blinding, but she thought she felt metal grate against bone. More than a moan and less than a scream, a fragmented half shriek escaped her unwilling lips-

She heard Batgirl call out her name but couldn’t respond. Her senses were clouded through the pain, but she sensed the attack before it came, instinctively throwing herself out of the way. The stabbing sword missed its mark but reached some part of her, slicing a gash in her side. Rolling again, she clasped a hand to the wound, blood streaming from between her fingers. She could barely manage to speak, but if she didn’t stop them Batgirl and Robin would soon be in the same position that she was.

“S-Stay out of it!” She shouted. Getting to her feet, she circled, regrouping.

“Don’t be an idiot, you’re getting-” Robin began to argue but she cut him off.

“STAY OUT OF IT!” She barked. Slade renewed his assault, blocking her escape with a fence of metal and sending a sweeping kick at her torso.

“Don’t be a hero, Agent, it doesn’t suit you.” He said. She avoided it, but as she came upwards for her own blow, he twisted his wrist in two simple movements, making a cut above her brow and another across her upper chest, blood leaking down her temple and breast. Had she been only a moment slower, it would have reached her neck. Again she had to regroup, backing off and recovering for a moment, watching him warily.

He retreated for a moment. She panted, one palm planted firmly on the ground for support, the elbow of her other arm resting on her upraised knee. Blood dripped from a dozen places on her body, staining the concrete roof of the courthouse with iron. The smallest of her cuts was invisible in the dark as it began to close. She watched him pace a short distance away, a strange feeling overtaking her. There was something wrong with this, he seemed different than he had the last time they had fought-

His line of thought had merged with hers somewhere, his silky voice emerging almost jubilantly from his impassive mask as he voiced his observations of her injuries.

“I would say that I’m enjoying ripping you to shreds, but then again all of that blood will be gone in the morning, won’t it? Not even a mark to show for my work…. Pity.” He was playing with her. Seeing how long it would take for him to chip away at her before she gave up. “Anyone else I would have given up on or killed by now, but your fate sealed itself the day I saw that genework, Agent. I will have you back, whether you want to come or not.” She winced against a trickle of blood that threatened to run into her eye- and the fact that Robin and Batgirl were hearing this. Fortunately, they seemed to be staying well out of the conflict so far. “Once the Titans are out of the way, I think a change of style would be best. With time you’d make an excellent assassin, but you’ll need some training to alter that abridged spy’s training Sasha gave you.”

This was the straw that broke the camel’s back. She launched herself at him, her movements loose and furious like a bullet.

“Shut the hell UP!”

It had been what he wanted- she realized too late that he had provoked her in order to make her lose balancing rationality. In the clash, Slade’s sword was wrenched from his hands, clattering to the ground and spinning away to be lost in shadows. Her attack was swiftly countered, Slade catching her fist and sending his own in a crushing blow to the side of her face. She tasted blood, her vision going black and her limbs numb. When her senses came back a moment later, she found herself trapped with his brawny arm squeezing her windpipe. She managed to get her fingers between her neck and his arm, but she wasn’t strong enough to pry him off entirely. Wincing, her teeth gritted together in an effort to keep her windpipe open. She wasn’t going to be helpless- she wasn’t going to let him take advantage of her again- she just needed to- her voice came out a strained rasp, struggling and still losing blood and air.

“Get- Get…off of me-” She grunted.

“I don’t think so, I find this quite enjoyable. Don’t think I’m going to take you back without letting you have it a little for almost killing me. Don’t worry, I know you can take it.”

“I said-” Her eyes flashed black, “Don’t. Touch. Me!” Knowing that she risked not being able to use it later, she wrenched down and broke his grip easily, dropping and landing on her hands and knees. Slade spotted something on her blood covered back.

“Ah, is that a new one or have I just not seen it before? That reminds me, Agent…” She watched her own blood cease dripping onto the roof. The smaller ones were healing already, but she could clearly feel the sticky warmth of the gash on her back, still spreading slowly. The way he said it told her that he was talking about her tattoo and her stomach clenched wondering what he could have done to her back then. Shifting between consciousness and unconsciousness, totally vulnerable in his hands. It could have been anything. It had apparently been everything. “If they saw what I see, would they know you? Are you famous enough now that you’re all settled in with Daddy? Would they recognize you from a magazine or a broadcast, playing the good daughter when at night you play with criminals?” He asked, leaning down as if to catch an answer.

Agent looked up sharply- Batgirl was forcibly restraining Robin, but her focus was switched to Slade standing over her. There was little doubt as to what he meant.

“Don’t-” She began, lifting a hand defensively.

“Let’s see what they think once they see the wretched thing you really are on the inside.” He said. Her reaction time was slower than it should have been, her energy becoming sapped from the process of her body healing itself. The sudden feeling of cold night air told her that her mask was gone. It was in his hand, he tossed it aside.Thinking that he had beaten her physically, he had gone for the killing stroke. She covered her face with her hands, her knees scraping the pavement of the roof through ripped fabric. Her hairband had been sliced in the battle, allowing a curtain of sable to fall forward and hide her face.

“Agent,” Batgirl shouted, still restraining Robin.“Agent, you have to let us do something!”

“Come on!!” Robin roared. Agent shouted to them through her hands, fingers covering her eyes. _No no no I have no face I am nobody no one-_

“No, not yet!”

She just needed to get her mask back, then she would have to use plan B as soon as possible. Deathstroke had other ideas, taking a handful of her long hair to control her head.

“Oh, don’t be coy. Show them your face, Evelyn Wayne!” He jerked her head upwards, her chin coming up sharply. Robin and Batgirl gasped. Evelyn’s pale face shone like water in the moonlight, her features clearly distinguishable now that they were bare of her domino mask. Blood on her face and neck shimmered black, catching what little light there was. Robin stopped struggling for a moment in shock.

“...No.” He said. His and her eyes met and there was something in his like regret. Slade interrupted, letting go of her hair with a shove and stepping forward, his shadow falling over her. He sounded quite serious.

“Are you humbled enough? Or do I have to do something more drastic to convince you? That bleeding’s already looking better you know.”

Evelyn swallowed to clear her throat, knowing that this wasn’t going to be pretty, but that it was the best that she could do under the circumstances. Her voice sounded a little choked, as if she had given up.

“You win, Deathstroke. I’ll come.”

“No. What the hell are you saying?! Don’t you-” Robin looked ready to kill Slade with his bare hands, but not before he put him through a world of pain. She interrupted him

"He’s right, Robin." She said, giving Robin a hard stare that Slade couldn't see. Slade seemed pleased with this statement. He couldn’t read her vital signs this time.

"Very good. Are you ready now?" He asked patronizingly.

She was trusting fate, praying to god.

“Yes, I’m ready…to end you!” She turned on him, her eyes shining feverishly obsidian- It only took one backwards kick to send him flying away from her, a nasty crack breaking the air like a gunshot. She started spitting orders before he even hit the ground, pushing herself to her feet with a motion like a jerking piston.

“Batgirl, left flank, Robin, right! Hem him in!”

Slade’s body rolled to a halt at the edge of the roof, the pieces of something left behind on the roof a few feet away. He tried to haul himself up, but she was there, her shadow now cast over him.

“Stay down, Slade. Only men get to die on their feet.” She said, watching him struggle coldly, staring at him down the muzzle of a .22.


	25. The Master's Return: Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: Evelyn your dad is going to be like, pissed

There Slade was on his knees with a gun to his head, just the way she’d dreamed about it. Him under her mercy instead of the other way around. The solid part of his mask had shattered under the brute force of her kick, pieces of it scattered on the roof making a trail to where he now knelt. He reached for the cloth portion and ripped it from him to free his face, panting a little. The power rushed through her chest like wind, filling her, and it was such an unfamiliar feeling that it overwhelmed her with sadness. Now they would talk as equals.

“Now that we’re here, Slade....” She wrapped both hands around the grip and held it steady point blank at his head. “You...” She didn’t know how to say it, unexplainable emotion welling up in her chest. Her guts felt twisted and she didn’t know how to express it until it came pouring out like bile. “You hurt me. I don’t remember it, but I know you did and I want you to pay for it.” She grated, “Don’t try to deny it.” He didn’t, seeming to know exactly what hurt she was referring to and knowing that it wasn’t any of the obvious ones.

“You came to me.” He said. Having her confirmation, suddenly her skin crawled and she lashed out, kicking him heftily in the ribs with her steel toed boots.

“I would never!” She hissed. “I was drugged! I didn’t know what I was doing any one day!” She said. She felt like she was vomiting the words. Each sentence came out in a burst of effort. He laughed, a short bark of a laugh.

“And yet you did. You can lay blame on me for a lot of things, but not for the sex. You thought you’d try your hand at seducing me and all I did was play your game.” He said. She heard a little “Oh” from behind her from Robin, but ignored it. “Everything we do is a game, Evelyn, haven’t you noticed?”

“Yeah, well this time I’m winning and taking your damn head with me.” She said. Suddenly, Robin spoke up.

“Evelyn, you can’t!” He exclaimed. “This isn’t how we do things.” She didn’t look away from Slade, her eyes glued on him and her face a mask of rage and pain.

“Did you not hear what he did?? Did you not hear what he was going to do, to the Titans? If he had his way they’d be dead, you’d be dead, and I’d still be his toy.” She said. Batgirl stepped forward a little bit, pleading.

“Please, you can’t kill him. The second you do you’re on Batman’s radar and not in a good way. You need to trust us that that would not be good.”

Fucking Batman. He wasn’t even here. She had no loyalties to Batman. He didn’t know about Slade and what he’d taken from her. She could never have a normal life after Slade had activated her metagene, even if she’d been able to tear herself away from the night. He laughed a panting kind of laugh.

“I gave you a gift.” He said. “Trust me, you’d be dead without it. Don’t get such a big head. You don’t have it in you to take a life yet.” He shifted, putting a hand on his one upraised knee and starting to pull himself up. She flicked the switch back with a click, wrapping the fingers of her other hand around the handle so she would have a steadier shot. He froze. The gun felt so right under her grasp, so familiar, like an old friend. He said that she could be a even deadlier assassin than he. Why wait to find out? Her eyes and voice matched two requirements already, ice cold and unforgiving.

“Did you?? Would I?? I don’t think you know me as well as you think, Slade. You think I’m just statistics and genetics, but I survived long before you came along. I saw some bad shit, including you, and I’m still here. Give me a reason not to make you my first.”

“Can we get back to talking about _not_ shooting him?” Said Robin.

“He deserves to die, and I can’t think of a better person to do it.” Said Evelyn, not looking away from Slade. If he moved, she swore she would shoot. If he moved it would mean he was coming for her and she was tired of being afraid of him. She was tired of having nightmares. She was tired of running and of being chased. Her finger tightened on the trigger.

“Look, it’s obvious he deserves it, and I’m totally behind you, but he needs to go to prison. I know a guy who works for CBI, we can call him and he’ll be here with a van in minutes.” Robin pleaded. She wasn’t listening and he could tell that he was losing the battle so he appealed to her in a different way. “....Do you remember when I punched your boyfriend?” He asked. Her mind filtered wildly in confusion for a second and then it clicked. It was Jason’s voice talking her down. “Think about what your dad would say if you do this. Think about how you’d have to leave him. And your brother.”

“There are other people who’d miss you if you left.” Said Batgirl.

Of course. How could she not have recognized that flare of red hair, and Barbra’s voice? Evelyn’s hands were starting to sweat, knowing how exposed she was. These were her friends, who she’d thought were civilians and hidden from them. But they were in her world, they knew the troubles and trials that she’d been through, merely by merit of having faced them themselves.

“This is touching. Can I get up now?” Said Slade. All three teenagers spoke at once.

“No!”

Evelyn had a vision of the gun going off- the thunder of the shot, blood spraying onto the concrete, Slade’s eyes glazing over as he hit the ground, the feeling of satisfaction long due. His smirk told her that he thought she was bluffing, one eye watching her through a venomous slit.

“Well…Make your decision already. Either kill me or come with me. We’re waiting, Evelyn.” Slade said. She came out of it, her eyes flashing icily, a fury borne of long restrained rage showing through.

“Fine.” She said. There was a scuffling noise behind her and Batgirl cried out to stop her but she got there first, hooking her leg around Slade’s and yanking, at the same time swinging the gun at the back of his head with every ounce of strength she had. Her eyes flashed black, his fall doubling the force of the blow. The cold, metallic-

CRAK

-wasn’t as magnificent as hearing a gunshot would have been, but he dropped just the same, hitting the ground in a similar fashion that she had imagined. She flicked the switch back, a trickle of Slade’s blood running across her fingers. That was good…it was primal, it was vicious. She admitted, it was somewhat satisfying.

“Just not today.” She said. She turned around, putting the gun in the back of her waistband for now- then winced, feeling the cut above it fester as her middle back healed. Truth be told, she hadn’t known whether she was going to shoot Slade until the very last second…Truth be told, her finger had tightened on the trigger….Truth be told, she had ached to do it….Batgirl’s feathers were ruffled, snapping Evelyn out of her thoughts.

“Where did you get that thing?” She asked. It took Evelyn a moment to realize she was talking about the gun. She pulled it from her waistband and inspected it for a moment. It was splattered a little with blood- Slades and her own.

“Hm.” She said. “Pawn shop.”

“You were really going to shoot him, weren’t you. Before we stopped you.” Batgirl said. It was more of a statement that a question. Evelyn nodded….She stared at it, drawn in by the leaden sheen. The power she held in her hand was definite, lethal. She could have killed him-and by doing so condemn herself again to a life of running. She blinked and looked up. She didn’t want to look at it anymore.

“I wanted to. But I’m not keeping this.” She gripped it hard, lifting it into the air and throwing her arm back for a good distance, aiming towards the river. She let go and it soared over the edge of the roof, sailing towards the waterfront. She only wished she could have heard the splash.


	26. There's a First Time for Everything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: Agent is victorious, Arsenal gets snippy. At the end of the chapter, a surprise!

The three teenagers stayed in a circle around Slade. Evelyn had recovered her mask and donned it again. She had no idea who they were dealing with, but it was obvious that Robin had a direct line to someone bigger than the Gotham city police department. She crouched over Slade’s body, shamelessly looting his utility belt and adding to her own as long as he was down. Batgirl was still sitting on the ledge with her ankles crossed daintily, the scalloped edges of her cape fluttering around them in the slight breeze. Robin spoke up from his spot leaning against a ventilation pipe.

“Arsenal, what took you so long?” He asked. A sweeping shadow halted its flight to land neatly a few feet from Robin, speaking the instant he hit the ground.

“I know what you said, Robin, but you’ve got to be kidding me, man.” He retracted his jumpline, stowing it on the back of his belt. Instead of relaxing when she saw him, Evelyn bristled.

“This is your CBI guy?” She asked Robin. “You didn’t tell me you worked for the government.” She accused Arsenal. She’d always assumed that the people her mother had told her to run from were “the government” and so she bristled.

“Oh, was it sharing time?” Arsenal asked, a note of annoyance in his voice. Possessively, Evelyn put her foot on Slade’s back and leaned her elbow on her upraised knee.

“Be glad you weren’t here, it was just a bunch of drama.” She said. He seemed more annoyed than anything.

“I can see that. You just going to stand there and bleed out like a badass with your hunting prize?”

“I don’t think you’re sufficiently impressed that I have one of the world’s top assassins face down in cuffs.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I was distracted by the GIANT CUTS all over your body.” He said, gesturing with two flat hands as if in frustration.

“They’re healing, it’s fine.” She said, defensively. He snorted. What was _this_ all about?

“Alright, my guys are pulling up around the back right now, someone grab his ankles.” He said. Robin came round and grabbed them, lifting with his legs and shuffling towards the edge of the building.

“Can we just throw him down or do we have to use a jumpline?” He asked.

“Who was it insisting that we didn’t kill him again?” asked Agent, supervising with her arms crossed as they frog marched him towards the alley side of the building. “Where’s he going?”

“The deepest, blackest hole that they can find. I’m sure that’ll make you happy.” Said Arsenal, grimacing at Slade’s dead weight. Agent considered for a second then acquiesced.

“Marginally.” She grumbled. Still she’d rather see him dead. She watched as Arsenal looped a jumpline around Slade’s waist, knotting it securely. He didn’t seem to be in the mood for her yet, speaking instead to Robin.

“It was good to see you, Robin. Say hey to Batman for me.” He said.

“You make it sound like he’s social.” Robin replied. Something caught Agent’s eye, a glint jumping out at her from the recesses of the roof- _The sword_. She found it on its side next to a vent, the metal glimmering even in the little light. It was razor sharp. She wrapped her hands around the handle and lifted it from the ground, the massive blade scraping across the concrete. It was lighter than it seemed like it would be, but she had to hold it with two hands to keep it upright- It was a solid weapon. Agent followed it’s elegant lines with her eyes, the edges so sharp they could have cut her gaze.

She was going to take everything from Slade, the way he’d tried to take everything from her, starting with prison and ending with this trophy.

________________________________________

Evelyn was supposed to be focusing on her homework, but she couldn’t. She hadn’t heard a peep from Roy in a week, and she hadn’t seen Arsenal out at night either, which told her that he was avoiding her. She didn’t know what she’d done and couldn’t stop to consider that maybe it was because of the other night. Sitting at her desk in her room, books open but unable to concentrate on them, she hit his contact button on her phone and waited. When he answered he didn’t sound in the mood, but it was a saturday afternoon and he couldn’t be at work.

“Hey. I’m kind of busy, I’ll call you back.” He said. She wasn’t surprised by his dismissive tone, grabbing hold of the situation and bulling through.

“You’re not busy, you just don’t want to talk to me, and I want to know why. It’s been a week.” She said.

“Ok, you’re right, I don’t want to talk right now.” He said.

“Where is this coming from? You knew pretty early in that I’m out there too. Every night, Roy, I’m working the same streets as you, the same dangers.” She said, cutting to the quick of the only possible reason.

“It’s not that. I’m sorry I freaked out on you about getting hurt, I know it’s a temporary condition and it was an asshole move to blame you for it....” He began. “What I didn’t like about that night was that someone tried to shoot me in the head and you left me in the dark about what or why. That made me feel like you didn’t trust me.”

“I trust you to have my back, Roy, but this was a personal thing.”

“See, that right there makes me think you don’t trust me.”

“You’ve saved my life a couple of times, of course I trust you.”

“Just not when its personal?”

She was getting frustrated with him. She wanted to lash out, her tongue reacting before her analytical brain got there to stop her.

“What do you want to know about this particular situation, Roy? You want to know the details of what he did to me? Things I don’t remember, but only suspect, because he had me drugged half the time? Sparring sessions that left me with broken bones that healed overnight only to be broken again the next day? Do you want to hear how he tried to murder the Titans- people we both know and care about?”

“Jesus, Evelyn, no-”

“I like you, Roy. I like you a lot. But when I say I need to handle something alone, can _you_ trust _me_?” She asked. There was a silence on the other end of the line, a long silence.

“Ok, it was personal. I get that. But next time will you at least tell me who’s aiming at my head and give me the chance to defend myself?” He asked. “Can I at least have that courtesy, if not a backstory? Put yourself in my shoes for a second, doesn’t that seem like a reasonable thing to ask?”

There was another long silence but this time it was her who was thinking. Her temper cooled unexpectedly at his words because she was doing what he’d suggested without even meaning to. On the surface, she cared, but if she wasn’t willing to consider what he was saying, did she really care? For this man who’d had her back on the street since day one? Would she be keeping her cool if he’d mysteriously disappeared into the night, denying her the opportunity to get payback for someone attempting to kill her? She wasn’t used to being wrong. It came out in stops and starts.

“I....hadn’t thought about your shoes because I.....I was too busy with mine. I’m sorry.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all didn't think she'd ever genuinely say sorry to another human being, did you?


End file.
